November 27th, 2023 - Sixty years ago this evening, I attended my first Metropolitan Opera performance: DON GIOVANNI, at the Old Met. I was in my fourth year of hardcore opera fandom, tuning in for every Met broadcast on Saturday afternoons, and building my record collection.
I'd been to some opera performances at the Cincinnati Zoo, at Syracuse, and even in Oswego, NY, just a few miles from home. But The Met was my goal, and on this late Autumn evening, just a few days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I finally found myself in the now rather dilapidated Hall that Milton Cross had described so many times over the airwaves; it was like a dream come true.
Read about my unforgettable experience here.