Sunday, July 21, 2002
Stern Grove Festival with Vanessa, Vlad, Celeste, Gary, Frank, Sam, and Patrick. Today was the San Francisco Ballet, which was breathtaking especially because if all 7 of us went to see them in a real stage performance we probably would have spent over US$300. The grove was packed much more so than the San Francisco Symphony, which we saw 2 weeks ago. The weather was cool and shady at first, but the sun moved in the hour before the performance and Patrick and I went home to change into cooler clothes. We got back just at the performance started, and we stayed for the whole thing despite having many other things we wanted to do. The Ballet performed "A Garden" by Richard Strauss after Francois Couperin. "Pas de Deux from Swan Lake, Act II" by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. "Two Bits" by Aaron Jay Kernis. "Pas de Deux from Paquita" by Ludwig Minkus. "Rubies excerpt from the full-length ballet Jewels" by Igor Stravinsky. The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra was conducted by Neal Stulberg. All the performances were excellent, except the xylophonist, who very obviously missed more than a few notes. Afterwards, we went home and showered and napped. Dinner at Paradise Pizza in West Portal since neither of us had the energy to cook. Grocery shopping at Albertson's. Patrick wrote some more. I scanned in photos.