h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My New York trip worked out wonderfully well. The hotel was in an excellent location (though the room was a bit cramped): we could walk to the Met for the opera, to Central Park and to three of the museums we wanted to see, while we were close to a subway line which brought us pretty much everywhere else we'd planned to go.

The Opera:
The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center is wonderful, and I can see that I'll be writing an entry about it soon. It's a beautiful building, with a very warm and welcoming interior (quite unusual for a 1960s building, I think). Our seats had a much better view than I expected, and the size of the stage was very impressive. The soloists were great, and the chorus were wonderful, while the productions were much less stodgy than I'd been led to expect: Fidelio and The Marriage of Figaro had very clever modern sets, and particularly good costuming in Figaro. (The complaint I've heard is that the Met's elderly subscriber base are very conservative and resistant to anything except very traditional staging, but the productions we saw didn't bear that out.) The staging of Lohengrin was done with minimal scenery and amazing lighting effects, with very stylised movements, and I really liked it. The orchestra were wonderful. Overall, a great success, and an experience to treasure.

(to be continued)
Azara

Wonderful! I look forward to hearing more, Azara. (You're using a new smiley - has there been a new collection out recently?)

Ah, the Spring Collection! I've been aware of the Tardis and the Snork ones and seen the occasional Lurk, but I obviously haven't seen them all.