Best of 2001: Best Seats For Classical Music

Copley Symphony Hall
(balcony, top rows)
and Civic Theater
(upper balcony, front and center)

The two largest venues for classical music in San Diego are the Civic Theater and Copley Symphony Hall. Here is where you encounter the San Diego Symphony (Copley), San Diego Opera (Civic), and visiting orchestras and soloists presented by the La Jolla Chamber Music Society (sometimes one, sometimes the other). Neither hall is good acoustically. In both cases, the seats with the least satisfactory sound are in the orchestra (the very worst are under the overhang at Symphony Hall). But in each hall there is an area with splendid sound. At the Civic, this area is the front section of the topmost balcony; at Copley, it consists of the last rows of the balcony, at the very top of the house. Those rows in Copley will amaze you for the richness and loudness of the sound -- it's like being on stage. Of course, if you want to see anything, you'd better bring binoculars. But who goes to a concert to see things?