We flew down a few flights of stairs and came upon a banquet scene set in a ballroom-type space.
The audience is kept moving between these spaces, each time taking a different place, sometimes in regular seats, sometimes standing on risers, and even, at the Emperor Maximilian's court, sitting at banquet tables set with glasses of real wine.
With just two weeks left before Israel's prime ministerial election, cabinet ministers and teams of technical advisers from both sides met tonight around a long banquet table set for 42, discussing ground rules for the abruptly resumed negotiations.
Thus -- as if in response to America's love of bric-a-brac -- there are also 17 royal clocks, a fantastic, gilded 17th-century gondola (which was restored at a cost of $100,000), King Fernando VII's 1832 bronze and jewel-encrusted carriage, portraits of four Bourbon kings and their wives, letters from George Washington to King Carlos III, and a banquet hall set for a royal dinner party.
That was when train tickets were made available for Saturday, the last day before Lunar New Year's Eve, when Chinese families share a banquet and set off fireworks.
A lavish banquet could easily set the host back by the equivalent of $500,000, he said.
Julia and Paul bought enough for everyone, and plenty of dry Riesling, and after the show they had a banquet on the set.
In the formal dining room (Wedgwood-blue walls, opaline-glass chandelier, antique breakfront groaning with heirloom china), Halbreich's banquet table was set for two.
A banquet table had been set up in the back garden.
