David Rubenstein Atrium @ 61 W 62nd St, New York, NY 10023, and Joseph A. Martino Hall (Fordham) @ 45 Columbus.
Lincoln Center Plaza
Lincoln Center Theater: Intimate Apparel, a new opera
This opera is by Mozart (1756-91), premiered on May 1, 1786 in Vienna.
This has to be my top three faves. … Brahms once said, “I simply can’t understand how anyone can create something so absolutely complete [as Le Nozze di Figaro]. It has never been done again, not even by Beethoven.”
Daniele Rusting condutor, Ryan McKinny as Figaro, Lucy Crowe as Susanna.
This production is four hours long.
莫扎特(1756-91)的《费加罗的婚礼》(1786) 👍👍👍
死得太早了😭.他的音乐🎶和贝多芬一样优雅, 但也很有趣和可爱🥰 勃拉姆斯评价小莫的这个歌剧 … another victim of Dream Host who lost my data
The moving company came today (armed with a printer) to give us an estimate. He went room by room with us, noting what to take. Then printed out the contract, with $200 deposit. The remainder payable by cash or bank check after they unload. We’re responsible to pack boxes (and mark which room it will go to). They do loading and unloading, and move each furniture/box into the appropriate room.
They move by weight. The minimum is 1,500 pound at $2,000. The price decreases as weight increases. (6,000 lb is about
1434D Richmond Rd
Staten Island, NY 10304
My first meal from Staten Island. A friend gave them a good review. Thought to give them a try. They deliver to the pick up spots in Queens and Long Island on Saturdays, will door to door with a minimum of $100. My math obvious isn’t too good: thought it was 
over $100 (ok forgot to count my fingers …) I would have ordered two fish balls were I calculated. But they’re kind enough to do it.
The fishball is my fave. The meat dishes are good but I didn’t have much appetite – when I placed the order, I just got out of the swimming pool, done my 1,000 yard, can eat a whole pig at that movement.
The free red bean soup is good, not sweet at all, which is great to my taste.
I asked if it comes with rice , the gent said no but graciously offered a free container. I declined, but thanked him. The ordering process was easy and smooth.
Some snapshots of New York and her tall buildings.
42nd Street, SOV, library, Chrysler Building on 42nd Street @ Lexington Avenue at 1,046 ft, which I think is prettier than the Empire State Building. It was completed in 1930.
2022.1.21
5th Avenue: seeing more testing tents. 47th Street, the diamond district; Rockefeller Center; MoMA, Fogo de Chao, Steinway Tower.
Fred. F. French Building at 551 5th Avenue and 45th Street, was designed by H. Douglas Ives and built in 1927. It reflects on Safra National Bank across the street.
… more photos
50 47th St
New York
Gemological Institute of America, is, perhaps the ultimate authority on a stone. Their reports – grading on a stone is respected. The organization was established in 1931 in Carlsbad CA. Their new office is in the diamond district.
145 W 53rd Street
New York, NY
This one is under the same management as Boucherie Union Square.
I went on the coldest day of the year: 20 degrees. Thought of going into a warm
shelter to warm up … not to be: the elegant and 
charming restaurant is COLD, inside out.
Decor: top notch with high ceilings, inside and out.
Service. Great. Waiting staff is attentive, asking me if I’d like a cup of hot water. YES and thank you! … Well, Chinese oldies prefer hot water and I’m being asked rather frequently lately = getting old -:) … ha ha ha.
Food:
Great bread and salty butter
Pate: so so. Don’t look delicate nor taste refined
Salmon: very dry (Trump’s Waterfront is the benchmark).
No drink: just to think of it makes me shiver.
The bathroom. Last time there I went to the wrong side. Today, I was like, no way I’ll repeat that. … yap did it again. Thanks lord no one was in … ehhhhrrr
Hope Tosca at the Met can warm me up!
An update, Jan 25:
Ok, we dined at the restaurant again after the Marriage of Figaro: the manager apologized for the cold: out of their control, without elaboration. I ran into temperature situations before elsewhere: the restaurants were way too hot in the winter but unable to lower the temp due to the buildings. “We don’t have control.” I lived in a condo for a short time and knew first hand how US wastes their energy. (Residents complain ‘cold’ when they couldn’t wear shorts and t-shirts!) LGB’s problem was just opposite.
Anyway, other reasons to return: I loved their decor; a restaurant uses Spiegelau glasses can’t be too bad; and not many places open on Sunday night. So we went after the Marriage of Figaro. Very glad we did: we enjoyed it thoroughly.
Temp: warm. Feeling cozy. I even noticed the grand piano by the entrance. Do they have someone come to play from time to time? Hope so …
Service: as usual was great.
Food and wines: delicious
~ Bourgogne Pinot Noir
~ M
This opera by Puccini was premiered on 14 January, 1900, at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It was based on French Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) 1887 play. The setting is June 1800 Rome, with torture, murder and suicide. The third set ends short and sweet.
The second intermission produced workmen on the stage hammering. Conductor 
Carlo Rizzi, Tosca by Elena Stikhina.
The Starbucks on Broadway @ 63rd Street closes at 12pm, how inconvenient. So I paid $7 at the Met, in a plastic cup.
It wasn’t a sell out event.
I’ve lunch at La Grande Boucherie on 53rd Street.
… and snapshots of New York and GIA.
30 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023
The Met Opera House in New York is in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts square. It shares the plaza and water fountain with Avery Fisher Hall now David Geffen Hall (NYPhil) and David ballet on the other side.
Operas @ the Met Opera House, 2022
Winter time seems the good time to go to indoor events, such as opera and ballet. I got tickets this January and March to a series of operas at the Met.
The list:
1. La Boheme, 1896 by Puccini (1858-1924)
2. Tosca, 1900 by Puccini
3. The Marriage of Figaro, 1786 by Mozart
4. Rigoletto, 1851 by Verdi (1813-1901)
5. Don Carlos, 1867 by Verdi
6. Madama Butterly, 1904 by Puccini
7. Eugene Onegin, 1879 by Tchaikovsky (1840-93)
Although I enjoyed them all but Mozart is still my fave. Madama Butterly and Eugene Onegin are all good too. Don Carlos is clearly the it boy. His giant posters (different versions) adorn the right side of the Met’s building whenever I went this season.
I haven’t seen Denyce Graves (1963-) for a long while … WHERE is she and her Carmen?
In March, I received next season 2022/3’s program in the mail. It’s a little bewildering that they still send out printed program, when our tickets could be used in smart phone app.
This sprint, February 24, to be exact, Russia invaded Ukraine. The classical world reacts to it by firing Russian conductor Valery Gergiev (1953-) and the Met cancelled Russian Anna Netrebko (1971-) who was discovered and promoted by Gergiev, with the Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska. I see Met’s explanation during the Don Carlos on March 10th (my previous opera Rigoletto was on January 25th).
The leading ladies in Madama Butterly, Butterfly and Suzuki are played by Eleonora Buratto (1982-) and Elizabeth DeShong respectively. Both are Caucasians. Wondering, why Met doesn’t use Asian sopranos for the parts, and why no complains heard from the Asian community – there was a controversy during David H Hwang’s M. Buttery in 1988, over casting.
The Playbill for Eugene Onegin has a paragraph on its history at the Met. It premiered in 1920 in Italian, and in 1977, sung in Russian and was conducted by James Levine (1943-2021). Levine had been with the Met for four decades (1976-2016) and was disgraced over his sexual misconduct. Comparing to pulling down General Robert E. Lee’s statues, Levine enjoys far better treatment. History should be remembered as truthfully as we could record it.
157 West 57th St
Between 6th & 7th avenue, this is the thinest building in the world, west of Steinway Hall. The 75-story has a 1,005′ roof, was completed in 2014. At the moment, the condos/residences are serviced by Park Hyatt. I parked here often when I went to concert at the Carnegie Hall as it went up.
