I had a meeting over by Lincoln Center tonight, and on my way there, I saw lots of women in furs and guys in suits tromping toward the Met. That means one thing. The opera. Never been to the opera. After my meeting, I decided I was going to go stand outside the opera house, see if anybody would randomly give away a ticket. I don't know if opera-goers do that, I know theatre-goers do sometimes. It's two different worlds, you know- did you know opera goers boo? They will BOO if they don't like something. I've sat through some truly horrendous theatre, stuff that made me want to pull my own kidneys out, but I have never heard a boo at a theatre event. Anyway, I'm looking, and I don't see anybody giving away tickets. But I do see a sign saying that the Met offers $20 orchestra seats to weeknight performances two hours before curtain. I decide to go into the box office, see if there are any left, and if not, maybe there's a folding chair behind a column somewhere. I'm all dressed up, in my nice black suit, I need to go to the opera tonight. I hit the window, and what do you know? There was one $20 orchestra seat left for tonight's performance. The guy was shocked- we usually don't have these this late, he said, you hit the jackpot tonight. When I get to my seat, I discover that it was the woman sitting next to me who returned the ticket at the last minute- she was so sure nobody would buy it that she told someone from SRO they could sit there. Too bad for them. Bellini’s La Sonnambula. A tragicomedy about a couple broken apart by sleepwalking. It sounds ridiculous, but set it to music and sing it out loud and proud, and opera is so beautiful. And I did not hear one boo.