This afternoon I went to a matinee performance of the Nutcracker. It's always a festive occasion. I love seeing the little girls dressed up for the ballet--some of them aspiring ballet students I would guess.
The Boston Ballet performs in the Boston Opera House, a beautifully ornate building that was originally a vaudeville palace, then a movie theater for many years, then the home of the Boston Opera company, which had to close in 1991. The theater deteriorated until, in recent years, it was completely restored and became the home of the Boston Ballet.
The theaters in the upper right photo, including the Opera House, are on Washington Street, right in downtown Boston. This part of Washington Street used to be an awful area--I wouldn't go there in the past. In recent years there's been an amazing transformation. People are living on Washington Street now, in new buildings like the Millenium Tower that are some of the most expensive real estate in the city.
Bottom right is Paul, a French café I like, where I went to have a little something before the ballet to tide me over.
