I slept until 6:20am which is pretty late for me. The blog went up quickly since there were only a few photos and I started working around 8am.

After much thought, I decided to bring both laptops – work and personal. I like keeping things separate and they’re both pretty light. It’s worked out well and I’m glad I did it. This is my setup while I’m here. I sit in the chair on the right, always, and switch laptops based on time of day: personal (on the left) early mornings and evenings, work from 8-5.

Ash getting ready for our lunch date. Only he could pull this outfit off.

We met my friend Meher for lunch. Meher and I met in 2012 when she had moved from NYC to Columbus, OH, and I hired her at Nationwide. She moved back to NYC at some point after I left Nationwide, and we met up on my last two visits in 2018 and 2019.

Meher made reservations at a French bistro, Benoit, just 3 blocks away on 55th St so it was an easy walk for us.

The bread course: a puff pastry on the right (2 of them gone already!) and warm bread with salted butter.

French onion soup is one of my favorite things, especially in winter, and I love how in a French restaurant it’s just “onion soup.” This was amazing.

Meher and Ash both had the escargot for starters.

I had the cassoulet, which I don’t believe I’ve ever had before. First of all: so much food! I was stuffed after eating only half of it, so will have the rest for lunch today. It’s a casserole traditionally cooked in an earthenware pot, which this was. The meat was duck and pork sausage, with white beans which is also traditional. It was really good, and I forward to finishing it today.

Meher had the octopus salad.

Ash had the salmon with béarnaise sauce.

Lovely Meher. These two hit it off like old friends from the start. We sat and talked for nearly 2 hours about relationships, travel, and work until Meher and I both somewhat reluctantly realized we needed to get back to work ourselves.

The waiter took some group photos of us but none of them came out, although this selfie I took is only marginally better!

We got back to the apartment around 3pm. Ash took Paul out and I went back to work. He took this shot on that outing. This is Central Park again (notice the Chess & Checkers House sign on the left). Paul is going to be spoiled. Capitol Park is his favorite at home but it’s hard to compete with Central Park!

We were still so full from lunch we didn’t make dinner plans, just nibbled on various things we had in the apartment. We’d planned to dress a little for our night at the opera so brought the right clothes just in case. But decided to go with jeans instead of slacks but still the dress shirt and sport coat. It was only 47 degrees when we left, and 45 on our way back, so we didn’t even bundle up. It was nice to not have to wear so much.

Our destination was The Metropolitan Opera. It is in the Lincoln Center, also home to the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet. It’s on Broadway around 63rd St so an easy walk for us in less than 20 minutes. This was the first time either of us had been here.

There were people sitting all around the fountain so I couldn’t get a good, centered shot of it but it’s still pretty!

Ash was being silly posing for these, and this was the best of the group :)

We got our vax cards checked – The Met required that you have your booster if eligible, which we are and had – picked up our tickets at Will Call, a quick security check, and were finally at the main entrance.

These were not our first seats, which were maybe 10 rows back. They weren’t bad, just behind the balcony overhead, so no view obstruction at all. But there were plenty of empty seats in front of us so at intermission we moved up.

This photo was taken from our original seats. I loved that the libretto was on the seat in front of you. Made for really easy reading. Opera’s default language is Italian. Some say they are able to understand what’s happening just by watching and listening; I’m not one of those people and doubt I will ever be.

As the screen says, we were seeing Rigoletto. I’m going to cheat and use Wikipidia’s synopsis since it quite succinctly captures the story: “The work, Verdi’s sixteenth in the genre, is widely considered to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi’s middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda. The opera’s original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter the Duke has seduced with Rigoletto’s encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save him from the assassin hired by her father.”

Five balconies. Wow.

A beautiful ceiling.

The show is in 3 acts, with one intermission between the first and second. The last two acts go pretty fast. This is Ash’s 3rd or 4th time seeing this show. It was the first opera he’d seen, in Madrid in 2015, and sparked his passion for opera in general. This is my 4th opera total, but just 3rd classic one since the Paris opera was very modern and not a single story. Of the 3 I’ve seen this was my least favorite story. As I said to Ash on our walk home: there were no redeeming characters; they were all stupid, evil, or both. The only character with any standards was the assassin! I will add that this story is based on a play written by Victor Hugo, who also wrote Les Misérables – one of my all-time favorites. This is not that.

That said, it was beautifully done. The singing was top notch, with Rigoletto played by Quinn Kelsey, the guy above with his arms outstretched. He is one of the best baritones in the world, making his debut here in 2008. As you can see, the sets were stunning. That palace motif was part of a huge block that turned on the stage, each side being a different set. And of course, the music was terrific. It contains one of the most famous pieces of all operas, which you can hear here, and I bet you will recognize it immediately. (And that song, by the way, is where Gilda finds out just what a cad the Duke is – “all women are fickle” – who had proclaimed his love to her yet is now visiting a prostitute and making fun of how stupid all women are – yet she still sacrifices herself for him. Just no.)

I appreciate all of the talent that goes into a production like this, I just didn’t care for this particular story.

We stopped at a 24-hour market on 57th and picked up a bite to eat – a roast beef wrap for me and tortellini salad for Ash – and went home. Ash took Paul out and I uploaded the photos for the blog. We were in bed around midnight.

What are we doing today? I’m working of course. Ash will head out about 8:30am to see if he can get rush tickets for Music Man, which we’d attempted on Sunday. So that will determine what we do tonight. You’ll have to come back to see how that goes…