Today is Sunday, January 19, 2025, a day until the coming Apocalypse. Maybe that’s why it’s snowing and it’s supposed to be frigid in Washington, D.C., where the inauguration has been taken indoors to appease a would-be dictator. Actually, the frigid weather is the story this week, as over 75 percent of the country is expected to face freezing temperatures this week as a rare winter storm approaches the South, in an online CNN article by Allison Chinchar and Lauren Mascarenhas examine this phenomenon.

But before I write about the weather, I must fill you in on the opera we saw at the Met last night: La Boheme. This is the 1896 opera fashioned by Giacomo Puccini about love among young Bohemians in 1830s Paris. According to the program we received when we walked to ur seats, “it can stake its claim as the world’s most popular opera.” The program also states that after the breakthrough success of Manon Lescaut three years earlier, this new opera established Puccini as the leading Italian opera composer of his generation.

So last night marked my debut at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center and no one took notice! We had a rainy but warm day with which to take in my very first opera. I’m very glad the viewing wasn’t anytime this week, with temperatures supposedly not rising too much out of single digits. I hope meteorologists are exaggerating here, but we’ll see. It is snowing here now, by the way.

Before the opera, Elliot left the house much earlier to catch a film at Film Forum, an Iranian film that garnered a 95 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating called The Seed of the Sacred Fig that went on at 2:30 p.m. I eschewed going with Elliot to the movies since it would have been a much longer day than it could have been. I left around 3 to travel to the West Side to browse a little at the Westsider Rare & Used Books Inc. bookstore , located on 81st Street and Broadway, right opposite Zabar’s.

Originally, we intended to meet for dinner at 5:45 on the Upper West Side, at a restaurant called Amelie Bistro Wine Bar, located on Amsterdam Avenue, but we were forced to cancel it because Elliot would not have been able to travel uptown that quickly after the end of the film. His movie was over two hours long. He called me before I left to deliver this news, so I feverishly scanned the listing of restaurants near Lincoln Center to try to come up with a suitable alternative. Many restaurants whom I called did not have openings until 6:30, 7, or even later. I was compelled to make a reservation at an Italian restaurant called Felice 71 – Columbus, which was much closer to Lincoln Center anyway. The first restaurant was in the 80s, I believe.

I decided to give myself about two hours or so before I would have to walk to Columbus Avenue and 71st Street. So I went to Zabar’s first to have a bagel and coffee. This is not their premiere gourmet emporium, this is their take out and eat-in place, right next door. So I had a bagel there first before walking across the street to the used bookstore.

Then it was time for me to browse in the bookstore. I am reading my new gay men’s reading club selection which I had to order from Amazon since I was Number 35 on a list at the public library from which I initially ordered it. I thought this was ridiculous; I wouldn’t get that book until next year, perhaps. Thus I ordered it last week on a Tuesday and it came on Thursday. I’m on page 140 already. After diving into it over the last week, I can see why so many people want to read it. The story is fascinating; it concerns the adventures of an Iranian young man by the name of Cyrus Shams who has a background of loss and violence. His mother’s plane is shot down by American missiles in a horrific accident and his father dies very young after relocating Cyrus and himself to Indiana. Ali could only get work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus himself is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to conduct an examination of those who sacrificed their lives for a worthy cause. Despite these quirks in his personality, there’s something very endearing about Cyrus and his longings. Also the writing is superb, in my opinion. Oh, the author of this book is Kaveh Akbar.

Anyway, I was in the store for about 40 minutes when I decided to start walking down to 71st Street. We had a 6:30 reservation for outside; I couldn’t get an inside table. And this was cutting it close since the opera started promptly at 8.

I got to the restaurant around 6:05 and was escorted outside to an enclosed bubble that seated two people. It was very cute, actually. The maitre d’ said that the enclosure had its own heat, and she wasn’t kidding. I had to remove my outer jacket because it was quite toasty with the door closed.

Elliot approached the outside enclosure around 6:20 or so and it was essential that we give our order to our server immediately since we wanted to leave before 7:30 if that were possible. We ordered some appetizers and then one main entree each. We eschewed dessert and coffee and managed to finish before 7:30. I’m surprised we didn’t get indigestion as we darted toward Lincoln Center after paying the bill.

Anyway, we managed to get into the opera house with no fuss and we got to our seats. I tried to see how people were dressed; what I could see was that not too many people were dressed too lavishly there. I wore a suit; Elliot had on good slacks and a sweater. Maybe I expected men to be dressed in tuxedos and women garbed in gowns and high heels. But I didn’t see much of that in evidence.

For the opera, I can’t comment on the music or the professionalism of the cast’s singing since I’m no opera maven, but I can tell you that I was not bored over the four acts of the performance. There were two intermissions and the acts were really not that long. Elliot, actually, walked out before the final act. He saw three acts and left after 10. I remained to catch Mimi’s gasping last breaths in Act IV and applauded with everyone else at the end. What really helped with my enjoyment of the opera was the digital display in front of me that provided the opera’s libretto as the principals sung the lyrics. I’m not sure when these displays were installed to enrich the audience’s understanding of the lyrics, generally sung in Italian. So you don’t have to be in the dark wondering what the hell was being sung by the characters on stage. I Googled one of the most well-known arias from the opera – “che gelida manina” (translated to “what a cold little hand,” when Rodolfo meets Mimi for the first time and they talk about themselves and fall deeply in love.) The lyrics to this aria are definitely very romantic and transporting. When I looked this up, I saw the immensely popular Pavarotti singing this aria to Mimi as Rodolfo. He was the world’s most acclaimed tenors, as you know.

Well, that’s all I can write about the first opera I saw. I do hope that this has whetted our appetites to the point of seeing other performances as time marches on.

Have a good week, despite what’s happening tomorrow in Washington.

Oh, I didn’t write about the weather. All you have to do is look out the window. So forgive me if I don’t reprise the particulars of that story I mentioned in the first paragraph here.

And so it went!

This is our program from La Boheme. However, the picture on the front is from Aida, not the play we saw last night.

This is Musetta (Adela Zaharia) taking her bow. She is the second female character in the play and she’s in contrast to Mimi who is sweet and good natured. Musetta is what you might call a “good-time girl.” She’s been around the track, as they say.

This is the fair Mimi (Eleonora Burrato) herself.

This is the entire cast who performed in La Boheme. There are Mercello and Musetta who are an item, but they’re always quarreling, Mimi and Rodolfo and two other artists, Colline and Schaunard. Colline is actually a philosopher, while Schaunard is a composer. In yesterday’s performance, Rodolfo is sung by Yongzhao Yu.