With the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008-2009 season barely a month away, La Cieca is already half-drunk with the sheer glamour of it all. Not only will this first night boast a bouquet of bonbons from Renée Fleming‘s greatest rôles (and, frankly, aren’t they all?), but the musical experience will be enhanced by the tetralogy of fabulous couture gowns in which the Diva of the Future will be swathed.

As if this sensual surfeit were not more than enough to reduce even the most jaded operaphile to a quivering mass of jelly, the evening will achieve its climax with the launch of that ebony-accorded aroma of which we will surely all be redolent ere long, La Voce Renée Fleming.

The lights! The glamour! The paparazzi! The elegant procession of boldfaced names into the Metropolitan Opera through the Lincoln Center’s legendary Josie Robertson Plaza… Wait, just a moment, what was that?

Well, cher public, thank goodness it turns out that the red carpet VIPs will not in fact have to wend their way through the parking garage; in fact, the glitterari will be able to enter the Met the way Gelb intended, through the front doors. Though it does seem like trying to funnel 4,000 people in from Damrosch Park might lead to a bottleneck or two. Keep an eye on the Met website for updates on how exactly one should approach the Fleming Follies.

Oh, and for those of you who prefer to enjoy your opera snippets al fresco (and I think you know who you are), the now-traditional opening night simulcast will take place, though for this year at least it will be relocated to Fordham University’s North Meadow. Now doesn’t that sound just bucolic?

Oh, heavens! La Cieca has just been informed that, with the Plaza under still under construction on September 22, opening night — The Fleming Gala! — will be forced underground!

Literally. As it stands now, it looks like the only way into the Met on opening night will be through the Concourse. Which is, not to put too fine a point on it, another way of saying “through the parking garage.”

Glam?

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