Biodome

Yes, you can select any individual seat in any of the balconies. I've tried it out on the Riccardo Chailly concert: Yeah, I am wondering about the same. I think stalls are the best bet. In the worst case scenario, there is always the gallery, which, I believe, won't sell out for a long time. Another thing to note is that you should probably register an account on the website in advance. You have to fill out your personal details and contact information to be able to purchase tickets. If you do it now, it will save you some time later. Also, it looks like each ticket requires additional information about the people who will be using it. You need the names, birthdates, phone numbers and emails for each of the tickets. So it's useful to have this information ready when the sale starts.

Depends on what you mean by "safest bet". Stalls do offer the best sound experience, but I imagine they will sell out relatively fast, starting from the front and center seats. You can select individual seats in the boxes. If you do, however, try to pick one of the two front row seats. The seats in the second row, or (god forbid) the third row, have severely restricted views of the stage, and when you consider boxes on the sides or higher up, you might not even see the stage at all. I've tried buying tickets to another event at La Scala, and it looks like the tickets are reserved for 20 minutes after you pick them and move on to the check out screen.

One strange thing I've noticed is that a week ago, when I checked which seats had already been taken by subscribers, the stalls and many of the boxes seemed to be mostly sold out. However, now, there are many more seats available. Does anyone know what could have happened here?

Considering the proximity of this concert to Christmas, I really hope they will include Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas and/or Somewhere in My Memory in the programme.

It depends. Are tickets to big concerts at La Scala sold out before the general sale?

Only if you disregard the fact that he flew to Vienna in a plane.

I'm not taking any chances. Preserved or not, I'll be cherishing that botched Leia's theme horn solo until the day I die.

Can't afford to miss any of them flubs.

If he is an actual fan, he's quite an oblivious and egotistical one. Firstly, he could've read the room and taken cue from the other fans around the entrance, who were thanking and applauding John Williams without intruding on his personal space. That was the appropriate thing to do. It also doesn't take a lot of research to know that John Williams hasn't signed stuff in years, and that he is generally surrounded by bodyguards for a reason. When a star is willing to sign something, they will show it clearly. John Williams was heading straight for the door, like he did during the concert in Berlin. Charging into him with a pen and paper isn't gonna end well. I don't have much sympathy for the justification that he was just a massive fan and really wanted an autograph. To me, John Williams is also a godlike legend. I can't stop enjoying his music, I can't stop buying the CDs/LPs/Blu-Rays, I can't stop talking about him to my friends, I've participated in this community for years, I've done four podcast episodes about his scores, and I've been to 7 concerts where John was conducting, sacrificing my time and finances to such a degree that nothing else in my life even comes close to that. I could sell my soul for an autograph or even a wink from John Williams. But that doesn't give me a right to barge into his personal space. If you're truly a fan, that also means you treat your object of fandom as a human that deserves respect more than anyone else in the world. Autographs are a mutual activity that demand consent from both parties. As a fan, one should have some self-control, know what's appropriate in a given moment, and know the lines that you're not supposed to cross. When a fan cannot behave like a proper fan, then one shouldn't be surprised that people will treat them like any one of those obnoxious autograph hunters.

Looks like the same guy from the Berlin concerts 😀

During the first concert, as I was sitting in the balcony, I could see that the mics were clearly recording, as they had red lights on. The music is definitely not lost, but whether there's a CD in the works, I don't think anyone knows for sure.

The ticket said we were in row 4, and when you add the three(?) front rows to that that would make it row 7.

Those people were me and my sister! 😄

They have Prayer for Peace as an optional encore

Tbh the whole hall should have sung Happy Birthday, that would've been amazing.

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They need more players

Do we have a meetup planned, or have we had enough of each other?

I've just tried asking them about whether or not they're gonna record the concerts. Their response was that they cannot disclose their future plans.

Your sole interest in this petition is just having all the flubs documented. I protest!

Aw, that sucks. Well, if you're ever in Berlin for any of those concerts, let me know, as I might be there, too.

Yes, I try to attend all of them, especially the ones during the weekends. I had to skip a couple of mid-week concerts, because flying to Berlin and back wasn't possible due to work. However, I will certainly make it to the next one, which is the Dudamel concert on the 26th. Are you going to that one? I remember that you had planned to.

Well, this has certainly put an unexpected dent in my finances. I'm already attending two Berlin Philharmonic subscription series, and I have a trip to Dublin for the Hans Zimmer concert in March. If John Williams keeps doing surprise concerts in Europe like this, I will go bankrupt. It will be absolutely worth it, though.

One doesn't need to be a nerd or fan to recognize CE3K music, as it's a worldwide blockbuster film. Spielberg's works are popular everywhere, China included. I agree that catching all instances of plagiarism is practically impossible, but as we're talking about a known theme and a big global event like the Olympics, I still think they could've done better. John Williams does recognize Stravinsky's influence in his score for Star Wars, so it's no secret. Besides, Stravinsky had been dead for several years, and by then The Rite of Spring had long entered the Western classical canon. So one could describe that track as a homage, rather than nefarious plagiarism. Even if one doesn't want to engage with China’s legal system, one can still publicly point out plagiarism and ask for an apology. Chinese people hate being lied to, they hate plagiarism, and they have a cancel/shaming culture for those kinds of things, especially seen in social media. It wasn't some random school concert, it was the Olympics, watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. John Williams himself is a musical icon in the Olympics. He deserves appropriate credit whenever his music is used in such a context. I wouldn't be surprised by this. Admittedly, I'm writing all of this as a fan, and I realize I might be far more zealous about his music and its recognition than he is.

I'll try asking some musician friends in Beijing if they know anything about this. The Olympics should have safeguards against this kind of stuff, particularly when the CE3K theme is relatively well known. Whomever vetted the submitted music wasn't doing their job properly, and the composer should be ashamed. In any case, John Williams and his legal team should be informed about this. They definitely have a plagiarism case here imo.