Sunday in New York----It does not get much better
Reading the Sunday New York Times over coffee in New York City.
Stepping on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera house.
After an early morning coffee and leisurely reading the New York Times, it was off to the opera house for a backstage tour. And a great tour it was! Two hours instead of the prescribed 1 1/2 hours and a docent who was knowledgeable and enthusiastic and whose voice carried throughout the group of 14. Some of the tidbit highlights were:
- the opera house seats 3900 plus
- 2/3 of the house is backstage
- everyone, principle singers and chorus members alike have lockers rather than dressing rooms
- dressing rooms are assigned lead singers by whether they are tenors, sopranos, etc not by the star system
- dressing rooms are small
- each production sets and costumes are built to last 10 to 15 years
- the costume department 30 tailors and seamstresses make/fit 1600 costumes a season
- there are three levels below the stage and 6 levels above
- the stage is surprisingly small
Following the tour and a stop at Starbucks, we walked through Central Park and down 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Plaza and the skating rink. Then it was back to the hotel and a quiet evening in.
I was more than happy to curl up with my book, Kay Fanning Alaska Story---a great book about a special time in Anchorage newspaper history and those people I know/knew, those I have heard of, and those I have not heard of but should have.
5:31:29 PM 
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