Lippizans on A&E
Judith L. Hardin
break something by the end--preferably the producer's head! You'd think
they could have found someone who loved and understood horses to make the
thing, instead of someone who thought it was all about as exciting as
watching paint dry. It was bad enough that they kept cutting to close-ups
of the musicians' hands, but when they got so bored they started giving us
close-ups of architectural details in the salle and of the musicians'
_scores_ !!!!! Grrr.
Growling aside, however--there is hardly anything as beautiful in the horse
world as watching a performance of the Spanish Riding School, is there? I'm
a kind of rough-and-ready, seat-of-my-pants, never-had-a-lesson rider, but I
watch all the horse events I can find, and read, read, read, so I know a
_little_ bit about dressage. A Spanish Riding School performance just seems
like the ultimate expression of what can be achieved in the partnership
between horse and rider. It's just amazing to watch those riders sitting so
still, giving the tiniest invisible cues (at least to my untutored eye).
And to realize how very disciplined horse and rider have to be--it's like
ballet, where everything is supposed to look effortless, but it's really the
result of years of hard work and training; it takes exceptional stamina and
strength and schooling.
And those beautiful horses. *sigh* They are _so_ beautiful. And while I'm
sure there are stinkers among them, they all have these beautiful faces,
docile, earnest, concentrated....
Rant. Rave. Happy holidays, everyone.
--
Judi Hardin | Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
ms...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu | Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho
Michael Czeiszperger - Sun NC Development Center
direction. I thought the whole point of cable was to provide
entertainment for a wide variety of people. If they're just going to
cater to the lowest common denominator, then why don't we just stick
with the networks? It definately looked like the director hated
horses. I actually think the orchestra got more time on screen than the
horses.
---
Michael Czeiszperger | "Toyotas are irrelevant" -Locutus of Pontiac
Audio Software, Sun Microsystems |----------------------------------------------
cz...@sunpix.east.sun.com | Co-owner of Kissmee, the excitable 6-year
(919) 460-8369 | old chestnut-colored Trakehner mare.
Wendy Milner
: Growling aside, however--there is hardly anything as beautiful in the horse
: world as watching a performance of the Spanish Riding School, is there? I'm
: a kind of rough-and-ready, seat-of-my-pants, never-had-a-lesson rider, but I
: watch all the horse events I can find, and read, read, read, so I know a
: _little_ bit about dressage. A Spanish Riding School performance just seems
: like the ultimate expression of what can be achieved in the partnership
: between horse and rider. It's just amazing to watch those riders sitting so
: still, giving the tiniest invisible cues (at least to my untutored eye).
: And to realize how very disciplined horse and rider have to be--it's like
: ballet, where everything is supposed to look effortless, but it's really the
: result of years of hard work and training; it takes exceptional stamina and
: strength and schooling.
Brag mode on
A few years ago I went to Austria and watched them work out. Cues
were alot more visable as they were training a lot of youngsters.
But the crowning moment was standing above them in a corner. One
of those gorgous horses came and did this wonderful bend through the
corner. I swear the bend was almost 90 degrees. A *dumb* woman behind
me said "Is that all they are going to do?" Guess she didn't know
anything about horses.
And then I went down to the breeding farm and watched all the little
black babies.
Had a great time.
Brag mode off.
--
Wendy
\|/
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Wendy Milner HPDesk: wendy_milner@hp4000
Hewlett-Packard HP-UX: we...@fc.hp.com
Mail Stop 102 Telnet: 229-2182
3404 E. Harmony Rd. AT&T: (303) 229-2182
Fort Collins, CO, 80525 FAX: 229-3526
Judith L. Hardin
>
>Brag mode on
>A few years ago I went to Austria and watched them work out. Cues
>were alot more visable as they were training a lot of youngsters.
>But the crowning moment was standing above them in a corner. One
>of those gorgous horses came and did this wonderful bend through the
>corner. I swear the bend was almost 90 degrees. A *dumb* woman behind
>me said "Is that all they are going to do?" Guess she didn't know
>anything about horses.
>
>And then I went down to the breeding farm and watched all the little
>black babies.
>
>Had a great time.
>Brag mode off.
>
Oh, Wendy, you mean person!! :-) What a great experience!
In fact, I was thinking last night what a great documentary it would be to
have the various parts of the performance--Long Rein, Pas de Deux, Dressage,
etc.--interspersed with segments on breeding, selection, and training--then
have the whole thing culminate in the Quadrille.
Judith L. Hardin
Michael Czeiszperger - Sun NC Development Center <cz...@bartok.East.Sun.COM> wrote:
>My wife and I watched it on videotape and were appalled by the horrible
>direction. I thought the whole point of cable was to provide
>entertainment for a wide variety of people. If they're just going to
>cater to the lowest common denominator, then why don't we just stick
>with the networks? It definately looked like the director hated
>horses. I actually think the orchestra got more time on screen than the
>horses.
>
I thought so, too!
Catherine Devine
|> My wife and I watched it on videotape and were appalled by the horrible
|> direction. I thought the whole point of cable was to provide
|> entertainment for a wide variety of people.
Well, actually, the whole point of cable is to make money for the cable
companies :) Anyway, despite the orchestra shots, I liked the program.
At least it didn't have a moronic voice-over a la that clueless woman who
did the Olympic dressage Triplecast.
BTW, what's the status of the Spanish Riding School? Has the fire damage
to the hall been repaired?
John D'Addamio
<CI70G...@fc.hp.com>, Wendy Milner <we...@cnd.hp.com> wrote:
>>
>>Brag mode on
>>A few years ago I went to Austria and watched them work out.
>>And then I went down to the breeding farm and watched all the little
>>black babies.
>>
>>Had a great time.
>>Brag mode off.
>>
>
>Oh, Wendy, you mean person!! :-) What a great experience!
>
>In fact, I was thinking last night what a great documentary it would be to
>have the various parts of the performance--Long Rein, Pas de Deux, Dressage,
>etc.--interspersed with segments on breeding, selection, and training--then
>have the whole thing culminate in the Quadrille.
We did much the same thing as Wendy to celebrate our 20 anniversary the other
year...What else are 2 dressage riders gonna do for a second
honeymonn?... Anyway, we spent 9 days watching the morning training and
made a trip to the stud farm on the day we couldn't watch
training[They're closed to the public on Mondays] it was GREAT!!!
There are two documentaries of the type Judi fantasized about. Both
can be bought through equestrian video places and/or the U.S. Lipizzan
Registry. Both have footage at the stud and of training procedures at
the SRS as well as highlights of a performance. Both are an hour or
slightly longer(maybe 70-75 minutes).
There is another which is strictly a performance highlights tape and is
shorter than an hour. It's also from about 10 years ago.
There is also one about the stud farm which I've not seen except in
Austria.
John
Naomi Gayle Rivkis
>In article <CI70G...@fc.hp.com>, Wendy Milner <we...@cnd.hp.com> wrote:
>>
>>Brag mode on
>>A few years ago I went to Austria and watched them work out. Cues
>>were alot more visable as they were training a lot of youngsters.
>>But the crowning moment was standing above them in a corner. One
>>of those gorgous horses came and did this wonderful bend through the
>>corner. I swear the bend was almost 90 degrees. A *dumb* woman behind
>>me said "Is that all they are going to do?" Guess she didn't know
>>anything about horses.
>>
>>And then I went down to the breeding farm and watched all the little
>>black babies.
>>
>>Had a great time.
>>Brag mode off.
>
>Oh, Wendy, you mean person!! :-) What a great experience!
I remember a long time ago, when they brought the show to New York
City for the first time in some obscene number of years. I was just
a kid then, but a friend of my parents' was the publicity director for
the New York set of shows, and she not only got me tickets, she got me
a backstage pass. I spent an hour walking around among the stalls asking
questions a mile a minute and petting noses. ;-)
-Naomi
--
"They want us dead. We want to be alive. Compromise between these two
positions is not exactly easy."
-Golda Meir
Linda B. Merims
they photographed from the _end_ of the ring instead of from the
side. So, mostly you saw the horses from their least impressive
angle (head on or tail on), with almost no "broadsides." An extended trot,
passage, piaffe, etc., should be viewed from the side.
Linda B. Merims
Waltham, MA
Neal Lavon
stallions on A&E just hated it. I did not know it was on, but it comes on
again on Christmas Day 10 am EST. I don't know if I'll watch.
But the main reason for this is that A&E bashers may get a second chance to
either slam or praise the network.
On Monday, 12/20, at 8 pm EST and again at 12 midnight EST, a David L. Wolper
one-hour special is on which "explores the human-horse relationship". This is
a slightly edited form of the description which appeared in our television
guide. ;-) I leave it to all to figure out what got edited!
I don't know if anyone has ever seen this before and has some opinions, but
just a note to let everyone know.
I appreciate the notices about horses on television as they seem to be few and
far between. The stuff that gets shown on Prime Network and Sports Channel
only gets occasionaly broadcast on Home Team Sports, the premium cable outlet
in the Washington, D.C. area.
BTW, I hope someone (like public TV where it seems to have originated from)
rebroadcasts "The Horse in Sport" series. I only caught a couple of them but
thought they were good and this was before, long before I started taking
lessons.
Neal Lavon--The Rookie Rider--
Linda B. Merims
of horse events:
- The network that televises the Breeder's Cup never
shows or tells you the horses' sires and dams. (Well,
at least they do show the event.)
- ESPN _does_ tell you sire and dam, usually, and they
do a good job of regularly televising significant races.
They also have a fairly good weekly horse racing magazine-type
show called _Thoroughbred Digest_. The problem is I can
never find it. It seems to be on at a different
time each week, and even when I can spot it in
the TV Guide, it's on at 5p.m. when I'm at work, or
at 2:30 a.m. in the morning. It is also frequently
pre-empted without warning.
- Nobody lets Charlse Cantey talk enough. She was (is?)
a professional race horse trainer and if they'd let her
talk longer than 30 seconds at a time, I bet she'd have
some interesting things to say.
Judy Labovitz
> <snip>
> At least it didn't have a moronic voice-over a la that clueless woman who
> did the Olympic dressage Triplecast.
What?? You mean you got tired of hearing her count out the 18 one-tempi
changes for EVERY rider .. or telling the viewer EVERY time to watch for
the sideways movement in the half passes? <sarcasm mode _off_> BTW, the
commentator in question is Melanie Smith-Taylor. I eventually turned the
sound way down and just watched.
Judy
Judith A Labovitz ju...@valinor.mythical.com
uunet!valinor!judy
I neigh, therefore I am (not). ---- Rene Descarte's horse
Deborah Stevenson
>- Nobody lets Charlse Cantey talk enough. She was (is?)
> a professional race horse trainer and if they'd let her
> talk longer than 30 seconds at a time, I bet she'd have
> some interesting things to say.
She is terrific, and is still I believe an exercise
rider. She was a commentator on the Belmont 15 or so
years ago when Temperance Hill won, and she about soared
over the park with joy because her husband was the trainer.
Deborah
Catherine Fulmer
Did those who watched this enjoy the too-short part where they showed
the lippizans at freedom in the fields? Really pretty, but still the
interruptions of the camera focus were bad enough to ruin even my
favorite part...
Cathy and TJ
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
c...@pnc-pimc.com Catherine Fulmer PNC Bank - Phila., Pa.
My words are mine, and don't reflect the views of my employer.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Anouk Behara
>
>Brag mode on
>A few years ago I went to Austria and watched them work out. Cues
>Had a great time.
>Brag mode off.
Awwwwwwww! My ultimate dream. And 2 summers ago I set about trying to
make it a reality. I was in Europe, flitting about, and Vienna and
the Spanish Riding School were at the top of my list of places to see...anyone
see the problem yet?
Yep...word of warning for those who don't know: The horsies take summers
off, and spend them swimming in Yugoslavia. And I even knew this, but it
had slipped my mind! So the closest I got was to have my picture taken
beside one of the horsey-statues :( :( :(. And it was raining
(pouring), and miserable, and what a horrible day! :(. I thought about
going to Yugoslavia to see them, but that didn't seem like such a good idea
:-}.
Anouk and Sunny, and Ken, who had to listen to me complain all day about
what a miserable time I was having!
--
,~~_ Anouk Behara
|/\ =_ _ ~
_( )_( )\~~ Department of Biology
\,\ _|\ \~~~ Mcmaster University
John D'Addamio
neal....@his.com (Neal Lavon) writes:
> Wow, it seems like everyone who posted on the subject of the Lippizaner
>stallions on A&E just hated it. I did not know it was on, but it comes on
>again on Christmas Day 10 am EST. I don't know if I'll watch.
Thanks for the tip on when to catch the rerun. I missed the original broadcast.
I think I'll watch it even though folks have dumped on it.
FWIW, my TV guide says that "Symphony In White" is a performance by the
Royal Lipizzaner Show. The Royal Lipizzaners are *NOT* the Spanish Riding
School as earlier posters had thought. The Royal Lipizzaner Show is one of
several U.S. based touring groups that perform using Lipizzaners. I believe
the Royal Lipizzaners are based in Florida. The other U.S. group that I know
of is the Temple Lipizzaner Show from Illinois(I think).
John
John D'Addamio
>(Catherine Devine) writes:
>
>> <snip>
>> At least it didn't have a moronic voice-over a la that clueless woman who
>> did the Olympic dressage Triplecast.
>
>What?? You mean you got tired of hearing her count out the 18 one-tempi
>changes for EVERY rider .. or telling the viewer EVERY time to watch for
>the sideways movement in the half passes? <sarcasm mode _off_> BTW, the
>commentator in question is Melanie Smith-Taylor. I eventually turned the
>sound way down and just watched.
OUCH! You lot are *hard*!!!!! I thought Melanie Smith-Taylor was the best
part of NBC's Triplecast of the equestrian events!
The Triplecast's equestrian coverage was pretty bad in terms
of schedule changes and getting bumped by more important events like
synchronized swimming, but I thought Melanie's commentary was OK...
Remember, one of the things that keeps equestrian events(especially dressage)
from getting more TV coverage is that the general public doesn't have a clue
as to what the sports are about or how to tell who won.
I have yet to see a broadcast of Grand Prix showjumping where they
didn't explain in full detail how the event is scored. Does that mean they
are clueless morons?
John
Susan L. Collicott
Just wanted to note something here:
From: j...@leigh.zso.dec.com (John D'Addamio)
Subject: Re: Commentators (was Lippizzans on A&E)
Date: 22 Dec 1993 01:05:01 GMT
>The Triplecast's equestrian coverage was pretty bad in terms
>of schedule changes and getting bumped by more important events like
>synchronized swimming, but I thought Melanie's commentary was OK...
Hey John - some of us horse people are Synchro lovers, too! :) I don't
mind the coverage getting bumped by synchro. But I understand how you
feel. Imagine, synchro *finals* coverage getting bumped by the preliminary
men's volleyball - we're talking the round where they still have 20 more games
to go! Grrrr.
:)
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Susan Collicott su...@pmel.noaa.gov The opinions expressed herein are
not neccessarily those of my employer or the government in general.
If you were dirt upon a road, in sultry summer weather,
I'd be a cloud and rain on you, and we'd make mud together.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Isabel L. Danforth
There is an ad in the Chronicle of the Horse. They are looking for
riders.
>John
Tracy Scheinkman
>Royal Lipizzaner Show. The Royal Lipizzaners are *NOT* the Spanish Riding
>School as earlier posters had thought. The Royal Lipizzaner Show is one of
>several U.S. based touring groups that perform using Lipizzaners. I believe
>the Royal Lipizzaners are based in Florida. The other U.S. group that I know
A bunch of us here in Tucson caught a performance of the Royal
Lipizzans and I can say without a doubt that it was not very good. The quality
of riding was ok, but just so. The horses had been rushed in their training
and were not executing the maneuvers correctly. To make matters worse the
horses were obviously uncomfortable with the portable flooring that was
used as a riding surface. It was slippery, we saw two horses lose their
footing though they recovered well, and it appeared to be too hard. There
were several horses who looked a little uncomfortable touching down on it
with their feet. Most of the horses backs were dropped possibly because of
sore feet. To their credit the riders did nothing harsh, some didn't even
use spurs. Their hands were ok. The handling of the airs above the
ground was very poor. The horses were not really ready for them either
from the stand point of training or muscular development. There were a lot
of circus tricks included.
By contrast the performances of the Spanish Riding School that I have
seen on tape, especially the 1950's performance that included Col. Podhajsky
himself, have been wonderful.
Tracy and everybody
Judith L. Hardin
John D'Addamio <j...@leigh.zso.dec.com> wrote:
>
>
>FWIW, my TV guide says that "Symphony In White" is a performance by the
>Royal Lipizzaner Show. The Royal Lipizzaners are *NOT* the Spanish Riding
>School as earlier posters had thought. The Royal Lipizzaner Show is one of
>several U.S. based touring groups that perform using Lipizzaners. I believe
>the Royal Lipizzaners are based in Florida. The other U.S. group that I know
>of is the Temple Lipizzaner Show from Illinois(I think).
>
>John
John, I'm pretty sure this was the Spanish Riding School. For one thing, I
think the guy who introduces the program identifies it as such, and for
another, I'm sure the performance is in the School's Viennese salle. And
finally, though this is by no means the clincher, I've seen the Royal
Lippizaner show, and those guys ride like sacks of potatoes--I was really
disappointed by the level of horsemanship I saw at that show (but not in the
horses :)). By contrast, the riders in the A&E show are superb (what little
you see of them, grr).
Judy Labovitz
> ju...@valinor.mythical.com (Judy Labovitz) writes:
> >
> >What?? You mean you got tired of hearing her count out the 18 one-tempi
> >changes for EVERY rider .. or telling the viewer EVERY time to watch for
> >the sideways movement in the half passes? <sarcasm mode _off_> BTW, the
> >commentator in question is Melanie Smith-Taylor. I eventually turned the
> >sound way down and just watched.
>
> <snip>
>
> The Triplecast's equestrian coverage was pretty bad in terms
> of schedule changes and getting bumped by more important events like
> synchronized swimming,
Actually, there was only one schedule change (change from the schedule
sent out when I ordered my triplecast coverage) and that wasn't the
triplecast's fault. The first day of 3-day dressage was
cancelled/rescheduled due to problems with the feed coming from the
dresasge site. Those problems were felt by everybody around the world
since the feed with the problem was the world feed which the triplecast
used for its coverage. Every other competition started as scheduled and
a few even went longer than planned for _and_ were broadcast in their
entirety (sp).
> but I thought Melanie's commentary was OK...
>
> Remember, one of the things that keeps equestrian events(especially dressage)
> from getting more TV coverage is that the general public doesn't have a clue
> as to what the sports are about or how to tell who won.
That's fine, but did she have to count for EVERY rider? She would have
done much better to compare ride and point out things that made one
ride better than the other. For example, try to explain "impulsion" and
"accepting the bit" and give examples of right and wrong using the ride
currently being broadcast.
> I have yet to see a broadcast of Grand Prix showjumping where they
> didn't explain in full detail how the event is scored. Does that mean they
> are clueless morons?
No, but showjumping is judged objectively and it's _real_ easy to explain
the scoring whereas dressage is subjective and requires some extra work to
explain the judging. The only way to explain it to a neophyte is to
compare and contrast different rides. If you judged by her commentary,
the only important things in dressage are accurately riding the test
(accurately as in getting the right number of steps at the right letter)
and having a calm horse. Yes, that's important, but those aren't the
things that made Rembrandt's test exceptional. His power and suppleness
and throughness and "spark" are what makes him great. By comparing his
test with those that followed, she could have done a lot toward explaining
why his was so good and the others weren't. I realize dressage isn't
Smith-Taylor's area of expertise, but surely she did some homework and
watched some tests to prepare. If so, it didn't show. I think that's
what people are complaining about with respect to her dressage commentary.
Her show jumping stuff was very good, and her 3-day coverage was pretty
good, but her dressage commentary just didn't show any understanding.
(Not that she doesn't have any, it just didn't show through.)
Margaret Schultz
> BTW, the
> commentator in question is Melanie Smith-Taylor.
Who, is (was?) a very accomplished rider. I didn't like
it either, and I think they were trying hard to cater
to a non-horsey audience. ya know, they don't do this
for football (offsides?? do you hear them
explain what offsides is every time it happens?? Do
you hear them tell you what clipping is every time?)
I say Ptooey to the people who aren't familiar
with the terminology. Explain it *once* that's it.
It also didn't help that her co-commentator was
non-horsey. Yuck! Just once I'd like to see a horse
show done with horse people commenters directed at
a horsey audience.
There, I'm done for today. :):)
ms
Elaine E. Lindelef
From interviews about the coverage before and after the
Olympics, I understood that they wanted to be sure that
random people who tuned in in the middle of the broadcast
would have a chance to know what was going on. Remember,
most of the Equestrian sessions ran several hours -- it's
not likely that everyone who saw them watched from
beginning to end. They also
talked about having the Triplecast commentary be more
sophisticated than the network coverage, though I don't
know if that was actually the case.
It would be interesting to compare the coverage with
that of some other sport when it first emerged from
obscurity in the US, like gymnastics in 1972 and 1976.
When I first heard about the Triplecast, I thought it was
way too expensive and was kind of annoyed. However, as
a proud owner of a full set of Equestrian tapes, I'm
really glad they did it. Well worth the money -- I just
wish they were doing it again.
(It could have been much worse: what if they'd gotten
George Morris to do all the commentary? :^) )
Elaine
Neal Lavon
A&E)
MS> I say Ptooey to the people who
MS> aren't familiar with the terminology. Explain it *once* that's it. It
MS> also didn't help that her co-commentator was non-horsey. Yuck! Just
MS> once I'd like to see a horse show done with horse people commenters
MS> directed at a horsey audience. There, I'm done for today. :):)
Something of the sort has happened with the commentators for Home Team Sports
when it comes to equestrian events. HTS, a regional mid-Atlantic sports
cable, runs Sports America and Prime Channel stuff but produces the Virginia
Gold Cup Races and the Washington International Horse Show.
They use Bettina Gregory of ABC News and Eva Lloyd Thompson (I believe). Ms.
Gregory knows the sport backwards and forwards, is not afraid to blame either
horse or rider in her commentary, and does not explain everything over and
over again. She does it matter-of-factly in her reporting. Eva Lloyd
Thompson backs her up but is more familiar with the individual horses and
comments on those.
I don't know a whole lot of details about equestrian events but listening to
those two is neither insulting nor boring. I did not hear the commentator on
A&E on the Lippizzans, but I will defer to the judgements of the NET.
One thing I did post about that turned out to be awful was a David Wolper
special on A&E about "man and horses", as it was labelled. Barf, skip it if
at all possible, it's really terrible. I won't go into gory details, but
let's just say the majority of our readers would find it highly offensive.
;-)
"No good deed goes unpunished"...
an old Washington political proverb
--Neal Lavon, neal....@f70.n109.z.1.fidonet.org
John D'Addamio
>Thanks for the tip on when to catch the rerun. I missed the original broadcast.
>I think I'll watch it even though folks have dumped on it.
>FWIW, my TV guide says that "Symphony In White" is a performance by the
>Royal Lipizzaner Show. The Royal Lipizzaners are *NOT* the Spanish Riding
>School ... rest deleted...
I taped the A&E show "Symphony In White" on Christmas morning. Guess what?
The TV listing was wrong as it could be! The performance *was* by the
Spanish Riding School as earlier posters had said. Sorry for taking us
off on a tangent but I felt it was important to point out the difference
between the SRS and the imitators...Fortunately, the A&E show was the real
thing.
Now that I've seen it, I can understand why people complained about
them switching to show the musicians. I found that they switched at just the
critical time to break my concentration.
But, as to the complaints about the camera position & angle, I think that
they were nearly *ideal* for that hall. The hall is narrow and long. The walls
are right at the edge of the arena on 3 sides and are 25 to 30 feet high.
There is no room for a camera at ground level on the long side. If they
had placed a camera in the gallery on the longside, you could only
have seen the tops of their heads and part of one longside.
As it was, they placed cameras in the royal boxes at ground level(i.e.
down near the musicians) and in the loges of the first gallery which
are directly above where the musicians were. Every film I've ever seen
of a performance in that hall had similar camera positions.
Having sat on both ends of the gallery and the longside, I think the *best*
seats in the house are the 9-10 seats just to the right(and left) of the
first gallery loges.
John