Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.classica
Titolo: Scala ReteBIT: una soddisfazione

Subject: RV: A message from Mexico 
Dear Lucio,
 
I'm Xxx Yyy  , one of the few mexican listers from Opera-L, and this
message is just to thank you very much for your advices.
 
You may be wondering which advices, but back in september 2000, you
sent a message to the list with your method to raise the chances to
get tickets to La Scala, so, what do you know? I got three tickets for
Un Ballo in Maschera on may 22nd, 2001. And everything thanks to you.
 
I hope you won't mind me telling you about the anguish I lived in for
two months, waiting for march 13th to come (the day the ticket sales
opened on the Internet for this particular opera). When I read your
message "Scala ReteBIT: LUX Manual" on september my first thought that
it was a very hady piece of information, but irrelevant for me, since
I had no money then to use it, but I decided to print it and keep a
copy of it under my pillow, just in case.
 
Anyway, time went by and suddenly I began to save money by cutting
expenses and decided that I needed vacations, so I planned a Europe
travel in may and found out that La Scala will give Un Ballo in
Maschera during that time. I checked the sales calendar and thought it
would be great to get tickets for it, but thought that my chances were
zero or very close. And this because of many factors:
 
As I write, it is still march 13th (who says it is a bad luck day?),
and I only got my passport until march 12th, so you must be guessing
by now that I hadn't done what you suggested ("reserve tickets for
another event, so the system will recall your personal data. The time
spent typing is precious, so there might be no ticklets to buy by the
time you're done typing"). Secondly, I have a credit card but... yes
(sigh!) it is American Express, and the internet sales program doesn't
accept this. Only visa, master card, diners, and othe which I can't
remember. Thirdly, I don't even have a computer at home and the sales
began at precisely 9:00 AM (Milan time), which means 2:00 AM Mexico
City time, so where can you get someone to lend you a computer, a
credit card and a bed so you can follow your obsession? Right. Only a
very good friend would do it. And so it happened. I arrived at his
house at 22:00 on march 12th and asked him to let me stay in his
place, use his computer and his credit card. He looked at me like
saying: "You really got problems, man", but then again, I had to risk
it, so I begged and said to him that if he were a muslim he would do
anything to fulfill his duty to visit Mecca, at least once in his
lifetime. And know, my good Lucio, La Scala is like Mecca to me (and I
guess it is for many opera lovers), though it's position has been
questioned and even denied. Yet, I always thought I'd give anything
just to be able to go into La Scala and see an opera, no matter which
one, I wouldn't even care who sang. Just to be there and witness
myself in that glorious theatre.
 
Well, so I solved the first three problems, but I had not solved the
fact that the system would not recall my personal data, by just
copying my passport number in the clipboard pasting it in the right
cell and click on "recall personal data". As I said, I thought my
chances were nil. But... as soon as I entered the Online Box Office at
La Scala (text version, no java plan, of course) I saw (OH MY GOD!)
that there were still tickets available for the Vesselina Kassarova
Recital (9 to be exact), so I promptly clicked to buy, accepted the
terms of sale, entered my data and confirmed... But the system replied
it was busy (impegnato) so I'd have to try again (riprovare). So I
did. For over forty minutes I pressed the "Reload" button of the
navigator and all I got was the same answer: Riprovare, Riprovare,
Riprovare, Riprovare, Riprovare, Riprovare, Riprovare, Riprovare, ...
I clicked the "back" button re-typed my passport number and hoped it
would be into the system's database, but it wasn't, and in the
meantime, the number of tickets available reduced to four. I tried all
the price options: buying a box, a costly seat, but nothig happened.
Then, at about 12:30 AM Mexico time (7:30 Milan time), the system
replied with a purchase code. I couldn't believe it! I had
successfully loaded my data into the system's database. All I had to
do was wait until 2:00 AM and attempt the real puchase. The Internet
was swift at such hours so I decided it wouldn't be wrong if I did
some navigating (I even searched the Prague National Theatre database
and reserved tickets for Dalibor on May 10th, but I'd have to retrieve
them on march 20th, and I won't be in Europe until the end of april,
so they will be lost, I'm afraid).
 
At 1:30 AM (8:30 AM Milan time) I went back to the La Scala web site
and found no difficulty returning to the box office, selecting "Text
only version - No Java", and from then on reload the page over and
over and over. But, at 1:45 my friend's computer crashed. It stopped
loading data from the net so I had to turn it off, completely frantic
and anguished, blaming my friend for having such a lousy computer and
Internet Service Provider, and rebooted the system. By 1:54 I was
online again nervously typing La Scala's URL, opening the Notepad to
add my passport number and hoping the damn wouldn't crash again. I
started reloading the events page expecting them to turn into links at
any moment and suddenly... they did! I selected my performance choice,
accepted the terms of sale, pasted my passport number from the
clipboard, confirmed, asked for two tickets at 66.000 ItL (the
Galleria) and, when I clicked the "Confirm" button, immeadiately a
code appeared before my eyes, which I copied on a piece of paper,
strategically placed under my left hand. But it wasn't over yet. I
still had to buy another ticket, since I'll go with two friends of
mine and either one would remain very resentful if I only got tickets
for two instead of three. So, I clicked the "Back" button until I
returned to the "events" page and, to my surprise, mine were the only
two tickets reserved at that moment for that performance (La Scala
only sold 55 tickets for the march 22nd performance of Un Ballo in
Maschera), so I started all over and, again, on the first attempt, I
got my purchase code and proceeded to enter my friend's credit card
number. Later, I retrieved the other reservation and did likewise. By
the time I was done with the third ticket all the tickets (for all the
performances) were gone... It all lasted no more than 10 minutes.
 
About half an hour later, I received two mails from Leoni Daniele,
Ltd. confirming the purchase and telling me that the tickets would
arrive by mail (so I'll live in anguish until then). I couldn't sleep
all night. I still don't beleieve it. I have to buy my friend (the
computer owner) a big present.
 
As you can see Lucio, I'm the living proof that your system to get
tickets at La Scala works. And I'm grateful to you for that. I'll be
in Milano from march 20th to the 23rd, and I hope I can see you there
to thank you personally.
 
BTW. Did you buy tickets for Un Ballo in Maschera? Do you know if
there are any parts of the opera which will be omitted (you know, like
the high note on "Di quella pira" in Il Trovatore)?  What are the
people of Milan's expectations on this production? I will enjoy it,
even if it's a fiasco. I'm in the mood for Verdi.
 
My deepest thanks and warm regards.
Xxx Yyy
Mexico City

 LUX
vedi?
Il Gianni skifoso mika gli skrivono delle gnokkolone messicane!!!!
(anke perkè non possono far la sua pulciosa fila nè mettersi nella sua
merdosa lista).
Abbasso il Gianni
Viva Mexico ( e il Lux)
A.

 Viva Mexico ( e il Lux)
chiedo scusa ma ....
siccome nei biglietti della Scala c'è scritto a caratteri cubitali
che non è consentita la vendita da persone non autorizzate,
non potreste, con una telecamera nascosta, filmare i bagarini
e mandare il filmato in procura?
oppure i bagarini sono autorizzati?
oppure quella che ho suggerito è una stronzata e non
me ne sono accorto ? ;-)
ciao

message is just to thank you very much for your advices.
Chapeau, Lucio, davvero !
Cesare Simonetti
GENOVA AMMIRATA

me ne sono accorto ? ;-)
Del tutto stronzata non mi pare.
Il problema  è come/dove nascondere la TLC e ki lo fa.
Bisognerebbe riprendere la scena dall' inizio alla fine della
compra-vendita. E ciò x ognuno dei bagarini...
Alla mia TLC non si apre neanke + il vano della cassettina...
LUX

 wrote in message
3ab366c...@news.split.it...


Dear Cesare,
I'm Conchita Tiburòn, one of the few Argentine lurkers of IAMC, and this
message is just to thank you very much for your outstanding presence!
In fact, this Newsgroup is  quite lousy, but *you* are paramount and reading
you is simply thrilling!
Lots of love and my best wishes for your new Government!
Conchita

 Il problema  è come/dove nascondere la TLC e ki lo fa.
beh, utilizzando una TLC di piccolo taglio il problema è
relativamente semplice. la puoi nascondere sotto la giacca,
a mò delle "Iene" :-)
quanto al "ki" puoi chiedere a un tuo conoscente o a un amico di Ale,
o a un poliziotto in borghese .... in procura sapranno come si fanno
'ste cose, no?
buona fortuna, Lux :-)