Ferri farewell 23 June- Tickets

[kalhesa]

Next 23 June Alessandra Ferri will dance Romeo&Juliet for the last time at ABT. I would like to see it, but I'm having quite a hard time in purchasing tickets... First of all I don't really know which are the best seats (price is not an issue), then I looked in ABT site but the only tickets I found were "3 Series packages" but since I don't live in NYC and would be there just for that night, I hoped to buy a single ticket... Do you know if that's possible?

Is there anyone who can help me with all these questions? Thank you!!

[richard53dog]

Next 23 June Alessandra Ferri will dance Romeo&Juliet for the last time at ABT. I would like to see it, but I'm having quite a hard time in purchasing tickets... First of all I don't really know which are the best seats (price is not an issue), then I looked in ABT site but the only tickets I found were "3 Series packages" but since I don't live in NYC and would be there just for that night, I hoped to buy a single ticket... Do you know if that's possible?

Is there anyone who can help me with all these questions? Thank you!!

I believed subscription new/renewals closed last month. (After being hounded for weeks, I finally renewed)

I generally renew, just to have 4 seats, exchanges are very liberal.

But I think "make your own" is still in the works.

What this means to you is that ABT/Met is still selling packages rather than individual tickets.

The last piece of the whole series /subscribution is the priority exchange, usually one week for single tickets

go on sale. Since you can only be in town one night, you need to wait for single tickets; I think this will

be April.

ABT website, they will surely announce the single ticket date.

I'm sort of kicking myself, when I renewed my series, the lady asked did I want to add on the Ferri Farewell

and I said no. Duh.

Anyway, watch the website and when the single sales are open, go for it!

Good luck!

[drb]

I know resubscribers at least were permitted to request tickets for Ferri's farewell. As of Friday's mail I was informed of my seat locations, including those for an additional new subs, so the process is moving along. No notice yet received (except to acknowledge request) as to whether I'll get the offered Ferri tickets--they are, after all, also part of a series. It is hard to know how many subscribers made such a request, but probably many have. The recent retirement programs of McKerrow and of Bocca were sold out. More important, most people lucky enough to attend them will probably have a keen desire to repeat such a powerful experience. So, how to get in?

1. I've found that during subscriber exchange I've not been limited according to the number of seats in a subs. I've been allowed, e. g., to get four for a specific date, even though I subscribe by the pair. One exteme try would be to buy the subs that includes her performance at the lowest possible price level, then try to exchange all four for one higher priced Ferri seat. At least you'd get to see it and cut your losses if no better seat was available.

While most tickets would have been purchased via the actual Friday subs, there will be people who will exchange that date (some are sick of R&J, or have a particular favorite dancing another night yet find two R&J's in one week pretty heavy going). So there are some bound to pop up during exchange week, or later. I don't know if the Met will do something special like keeping a list of those subscribing requesters whom they may have had to deny, some sort of priority list. But it is not like the Met to bother about customers for something as insignificant as ballet...

2. On the first day of regular sales you can check their website, even at midnight. If there are any tickets that have popped back into the system, you might luck out. Just be warned that their computer thinks we want the closest row available, and that is what it offers. So there is chance of a better seat if you also look at the lower priced orchestra seats.

3. Where to sit? The Met is not a ballet house, so there are some seats a county away (I began in the last row of the family circle and was chastised for reaching up to the gold leaf ceiling--you could still scratch some off in those days--but binocs brought Nureyev close enough to motivate future rebudgeting to the balcony...). Many are at extreme angles too. But if you can sit to audience left, you will see the all-important balcony scene.

4. During exchange week, I'll be exchanging at the Box Office, and will post on BT if any are available. Perhaps other BTers will also.

By the way, the night before Ferri's event, Kyra Nichols will have her retirement program at NYCB. Peter Martins has chosen to make this a nonsubscription event featuring her in three of her favorite roles.

[kalhesa]

Thanks a lot both!! You've been a big help!

[Klavier]

Once single tickets are available, I would keep my eye on the Met's website, as you can order tickets from there with individual seat selection (hurrah*), and you will immediately see a seating chart and which sections are open. Within a section, if you don't like a particular seat, just request the same section again and you'll get the next seat available. As for seating if price is not a concern, I always try for the center orchestra, about rows G-T for optimal viewing. If you like sitting closer than that, be sure you're not dead center as you'll be seeing a lot of the conductor. Given that ballet at the Met costs about the same as an opera seat in the balcony, I don't think this price much of an extravagance.

As for getting a ticket, even if the performance is "sold out," it may not be. The Julio Bocca farewell last year was supposedly sold out for weeks, but on the day, I simply called the Met box office every half hour when tickets were starting to be returned, and by 12 noon I had a seat in center orchestra row S. And for the adventurous there is also the buy-at-the-door approach, which I've talked about at the NYCB subforum.

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* NYCB still appears to think this is not a priority.

[carbro]

Once single tickets are available, I would keep my eye on the Met's website, as you can order tickets from there with individual seat selection (hurrah*), and you will immediately see a seating chart and which sections are open. Within a section, if you don't like a particular seat, just request the same section again and you'll get the next seat available.

We'll know that online ticketing has come of age when, after selecting a seat, you get a message, "behind a 6'5" man," or "directly in front of chronic candy unwrapper."

[4mrdncr]

We'll know that online ticketing has come of age when, after selecting a seat, you get a message, "behind a 6'5" man," or "directly in front of chronic candy unwrapper."

SO TRUE. And would have been a big help when I survived blizzards, sleep deprivation, and spent two weeks salary to fly 3000 miles + to see something other than the back of someone's head.

[artist]

I feel embarassed to ask, but why is Ferri having a farewell!?! Is this retirement for good, or is she going to a diff. company (staying w/ RB) ? I am definitely not updated; pardon my ignorance :blush: ..... I absolutely adored her in R & J w/ Wayne Eagling on Ballet Favorites. Would have seen her in Giselle if not for an injury.

[drb]

I feel embarassed to ask, but why is Ferri having a farewell!?!

Mrs. Ferri left RB and joined ABT in 1985, where she and Julio Bocca formed one of the great partnerships of recent decades. Widely regarded as THE dance-actress of the era, her very well-deserved farewell is specific to ABT; she maintains her affiliation with La Scala in Milan. Here is a record of her career, from ABT's site:

http://www.abt.org/dancers/detail.asp?Dancer_ID=25