Got it; that's OK. It works for me, but may not for others. By the way, before the opera last weekend we had lunch at Asiate, on the 35th floor of the Mandarin Oriental (Columbus Circle): $48 per person for brunch. While the view was wonderful and new (Oh, how I miss "Nirvana on Rooftop"), the food was a big snooze.

Has anyone tried "whym," several blocks down from Lincoln Center? I love this place, but it is not as much of a special occasion place as Picholine.

LilRickey, I agree about Asiate. I wanted to enjoy it so much, but it was nothing special. In fact, thanks to two office groups there causing them to rearrange all the tables, we really didn't even have much view -- blocked by these two groups.

I haven't been to the Met in years, but this is giving me the chance to reminisce. When I was in high school around 1968, there were tickets available through the school's music teacher for "score desks". I think they were six dollars apiece. No view, but you went to a room upstairs somewhere and showed them your ticket and they gave you a score, which you would take back to your seat and put on the lighted desk in front of you to follow along. Don't know whether they still have this.

During the intermission, we would run out to the front door and get tickets from people who were leaving. Then we had good seats for the rest of the opera. When we couldn't get the score desks we'd buy standing room and do the same thing at intermission. There were always enough people leaving and willing to share their tickets that we'd have our choice of good seats.

I can attest to the folks who want dibs on my tickets after intermission. They don't look like students though.

I regularly purchased a same-day $3 ticket for orchestra standing room in the late '70s. During a broadcast performance of "Die Meistersinger" my companion and I were offered tickets at the first intermission by a departing couple. It turns out we were seated in the first row, center, directly behind the conductor, Sixten Ehrling. For a 19-year old voice student, it was a wonderful experience!

Saw Romeo and Juliette on Saturday evening and I must say that Anna Netrebko as Juliette was absolutely amazing. A true pleasure. I would actually see it again if I could get the tickets!

For those curious, as I was, about Mrs. Astor's box, it's box #9 in the parterre.

Here's a wonderful NYTimes article from the 80s about the socialite history of the Met opera: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/04/ma...the-opera.html

Kind of funny this was revived from 10 years ago! I started reading the first post and thought "are they kidding? Those prices aren't even a sizeable fraction of the real costs". Then I realized I had responded also 10 years ago.

Yeah, it is and I keep wondering when the Patron office is going to call and tell me I got the seats I want, too.