Small, Cute Sinkhole Swallows Menu and Soda Bottle

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times What are these men looking at? Read on for a closer look!

If you’re like us, you’ve probably read more than a few stories about horrible nightmare sinkholes that swallow up trucks and kill people. Join us, then, in praise of the Little Sinkhole of West Tenth Street.

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times The little sinkhole was big enough for a person to fall into, but no one did.

The wee sinkhole was born around 9 a.m. Friday on the block between Bleecker and West Fourth Streets, after sewage leaking from a broken pipe washed away the fill beneath the pavement, which then collapsed, city officials said. It was about six feet long and six feet deep â€" big enough for a person to fall into. Thankfully, no one did, just some menus and other street flotsam.

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times People found their attention drawn to the little sinkhole.

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times They could not stop looking at it.

The sinkhole was also big enough to force the M8 bus to detour onto other streets. But by 4:18 p.m., the hole had been backfilled by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, the blocked-off part of the street had reopened and normal bus service had resumed.

Goodbye, little sinkhole!

The Week in Pictures for May 3

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include a five-alarm fire in the Bronx, a motorcycle club in Queens and the cherry blossoms blooming in Brooklyn.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in the Sunday newspaper, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times’s Wendell Jamieson, Michael Grynbaum, Patrick Healy and Clyde Haberman. Also, David Rohde, an author.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured daily in the main print news section of The Times. You may also browse highlights from the blog and reader comments, read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Coney Island, 1:51 P.M.

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The Week in Culture Pictures, May 3

Chad Batka for The New York Times Rihanna performing at the Prudential Center on Sunday.

More photographs.

A slide show of photographs of cultural highlights from this week.

A Hip-Hop Producer Is Shot During a Robbery

The hip-hop producer AraabMuzik was shot in the chest during a a robbery in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday and remains hospitalized, the police said.

The producer, whose real name is Abraham Orellana, was riding with a friend in a black Nissan Infiniti when someone opened the rear door, got in the back seat and brandished a revolver, according to a Providence Police incident report. It was shortly after midnight. Alarmed, Mr. Orellana and his friend got out of the car. The robber fired a shot then fled. The bullet entered Mr. Orellana’s left chest and exited his lower back, the police report said.

The friend, who was not identified, drove Mr. Orellana to Rhode Island Hospital, breaking down a wooden gate to reach the emergency room. In a statement released to Billboard late Thursday, a publicist for the producer said Mr. Orellana was “currently alive and well” and attributed the shooting to “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” while he was socializing with friends.

The producer’s manager, George Moore, a record label executive known as DukeDaGod, posted on Instagram a picture of Mr. Orellana in a hospital bed on Thursday with the words: “Everyone wish my brother @araabmuzik a healthy & pleasant recovery!!!!”

“Araab is looking forward to a speedy recovery and returning to the stage as soon as he can,” Mr. Moore wrote.

It remained unclear if the incident would keep Mr. Orellana, a favorite at electronic dance music events, from touring. He was scheduled to play Saturday at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., followed by performances in Dallas and Houston later this month. He is also expected to perform at the Electric Daisy Carnival festival in Las Vegas, which runs from June 18 to June 25.

A Hip-Hop Producer Is Shot During a Robbery

The hip-hop producer AraabMuzik was shot in the chest during a a robbery in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday and remains hospitalized, the police said.

The producer, whose real name is Abraham Orellana, was riding with a friend in a black Nissan Infiniti when someone opened the rear door, got in the back seat and brandished a revolver, according to a Providence Police incident report. It was shortly after midnight. Alarmed, Mr. Orellana and his friend got out of the car. The robber fired a shot then fled. The bullet entered Mr. Orellana’s left chest and exited his lower back, the police report said.

The friend, who was not identified, drove Mr. Orellana to Rhode Island Hospital, breaking down a wooden gate to reach the emergency room. In a statement released to Billboard late Thursday, a publicist for the producer said Mr. Orellana was “currently alive and well” and attributed the shooting to “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” while he was socializing with friends.

The producer’s manager, George Moore, a record label executive known as DukeDaGod, posted on Instagram a picture of Mr. Orellana in a hospital bed on Thursday with the words: “Everyone wish my brother @araabmuzik a healthy & pleasant recovery!!!!”

“Araab is looking forward to a speedy recovery and returning to the stage as soon as he can,” Mr. Moore wrote.

It remained unclear if the incident would keep Mr. Orellana, a favorite at electronic dance music events, from touring. He was scheduled to play Saturday at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., followed by performances in Dallas and Houston later this month. He is also expected to perform at the Electric Daisy Carnival festival in Las Vegas, which runs from June 18 to June 25.

A Hip-Hop Producer Is Shot During a Robbery

The hip-hop producer AraabMuzik was shot in the chest during a a robbery in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday and remains hospitalized, the police said.

The producer, whose real name is Abraham Orellana, was riding with a friend in a black Nissan Infiniti when someone opened the rear door, got in the back seat and brandished a revolver, according to a Providence Police incident report. It was shortly after midnight. Alarmed, Mr. Orellana and his friend got out of the car. The robber fired a shot then fled. The bullet entered Mr. Orellana’s left chest and exited his lower back, the police report said.

The friend, who was not identified, drove Mr. Orellana to Rhode Island Hospital, breaking down a wooden gate to reach the emergency room. In a statement released to Billboard late Thursday, a publicist for the producer said Mr. Orellana was “currently alive and well” and attributed the shooting to “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” while he was socializing with friends.

The producer’s manager, George Moore, a record label executive known as DukeDaGod, posted on Instagram a picture of Mr. Orellana in a hospital bed on Thursday with the words: “Everyone wish my brother @araabmuzik a healthy & pleasant recovery!!!!”

“Araab is looking forward to a speedy recovery and returning to the stage as soon as he can,” Mr. Moore wrote.

It remained unclear if the incident would keep Mr. Orellana, a favorite at electronic dance music events, from touring. He was scheduled to play Saturday at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., followed by performances in Dallas and Houston later this month. He is also expected to perform at the Electric Daisy Carnival festival in Las Vegas, which runs from June 18 to June 25.

New Season Orders and Mixed Ratings News for Cable Series

Wednesday was a big day for cable television renewals - HBO’s “Veep,” TNT’s “Dallas” and the Sundance Channel’s “Rectify” were all picked up for new seasons that are scheduled to air in 2014. How have those programs fared in the ratings?

“Veep,” which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the country’s second in command, has been making small strides in its second season. The third episode, on April 26, drew 1.3 million total viewers, surpassing all other episodes except the the series premiere. The show is HBO’s most-watched comedy, well ahead of “Girls,” although “Veep” has the added benefit of following the surging “Game of Thrones,” which drew a series high of 5.4 million total viewers on April 26.

“Dallas,” which concluded its second season on TNT this year, averaged 2.7 million viewers, and that total reached 3.8 million after DVR viewership was included. These figures were down from the show’s first season, when an average of 4.4 million total viewers tuned in.

“Rectify,” the Sundance Channel’s first foray into original drama programming, was renewed for a 10-episode second season. The current six-episode season, which began on April 22, has received mixed reviews and Nielsen does not track the ratings for the Sundance Channel. But in a statement on Wednesday, Sarah Barnett, the president and general manager of the channel,  said, “The response to ‘Rectify’ has been incredible.”

That Old Wildhorn Magic: ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ to Close

The producers of the Broadway musical revival of “Jekyll & Hyde” announced on Friday that the show would come to a premature end, with its final performance on May 12, after only 15 previews and 30 regular performances at the Marquis Theater. It was scheduled to run until June 30.

Although the production had a 25-week national tour before coming to Broadway, no plans were announced to move it to another location, either on Broadway or elsewhere. It is the latest show with music by Frank Wildhorn to flop on Broadway, a list that includes “The Civil War,” “Dracula,” “Wonderland” and “Bonnie & Clyde.”

The original production of “Jekyll & Hyde” had more than 1,500 performances from 1997 to 2001, although it, too, failed to make a profit.

Graphic Books Best Sellers: The Wonder of Childhood

“Marble Season,” by Gilbert Hernandez, arrives at No. 2 on our hardcover graphic books best-seller list this week. Mr. Hernandez is better known for his work on “Love and Rockets,” a critically acclaimed independent comic book series that he worked on primarily with his brother Jaime (and occasionally with their brother Mario). Confession time: “Love and Rockets” is beloved by many, but the parts of the sprawling tale that I’ve read have left me cold. “Marble Season” had the opposite effect. In this semi-autobiographical tale, Mr. Hernandez captures the wonder of childhood â€" the joy of imagination, an appreciation for comic books and all the ultimately petty but seemingly world-shattering trials and tribulations of friendships during that time in one’s life. The 120-page story is told in six-panel grids that reminded me of Sunday newspaper comic strips, which I devoured in my youth. “Marble Season” is published by Drawn & Quarterly.

As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.

That Old Wildhorn Magic: ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ to Close

The producers of the Broadway musical revival of “Jekyll & Hyde” announced on Friday that the show would come to a premature end, with its final performance on May 12, after only 15 previews and 30 regular performances at the Marquis Theater. It was scheduled to run until June 30.

Although the production had a 25-week national tour before coming to Broadway, no plans were announced to move it to another location, either on Broadway or elsewhere. It is the latest show with music by Frank Wildhorn to flop on Broadway, a list that includes “The Civil War,” “Dracula,” “Wonderland” and “Bonnie & Clyde.”

The original production of “Jekyll & Hyde” had more than 1,500 performances from 1997 to 2001, although it, too, failed to make a profit.

That Old Wildhorn Magic: ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ to Close

The producers of the Broadway musical revival of “Jekyll & Hyde” announced on Friday that the show would come to a premature end, with its final performance on May 12, after only 15 previews and 30 regular performances at the Marquis Theater. It was scheduled to run until June 30.

Although the production had a 25-week national tour before coming to Broadway, no plans were announced to move it to another location, either on Broadway or elsewhere. It is the latest show with music by Frank Wildhorn to flop on Broadway, a list that includes “The Civil War,” “Dracula,” “Wonderland” and “Bonnie & Clyde.”

The original production of “Jekyll & Hyde” had more than 1,500 performances from 1997 to 2001, although it, too, failed to make a profit.

Graphic Books Best Sellers: The Wonder of Childhood

“Marble Season,” by Gilbert Hernandez, arrives at No. 2 on our hardcover graphic books best-seller list this week. Mr. Hernandez is better known for his work on “Love and Rockets,” a critically acclaimed independent comic book series that he worked on primarily with his brother Jaime (and occasionally with their brother Mario). Confession time: “Love and Rockets” is beloved by many, but the parts of the sprawling tale that I’ve read have left me cold. “Marble Season” had the opposite effect. In this semi-autobiographical tale, Mr. Hernandez captures the wonder of childhood â€" the joy of imagination, an appreciation for comic books and all the ultimately petty but seemingly world-shattering trials and tribulations of friendships during that time in one’s life. The 120-page story is told in six-panel grids that reminded me of Sunday newspaper comic strips, which I devoured in my youth. “Marble Season” is published by Drawn & Quarterly.

As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.

Graphic Books Best Sellers: The Wonder of Childhood

“Marble Season,” by Gilbert Hernandez, arrives at No. 2 on our hardcover graphic books best-seller list this week. Mr. Hernandez is better known for his work on “Love and Rockets,” a critically acclaimed independent comic book series that he worked on primarily with his brother Jaime (and occasionally with their brother Mario). Confession time: “Love and Rockets” is beloved by many, but the parts of the sprawling tale that I’ve read have left me cold. “Marble Season” had the opposite effect. In this semi-autobiographical tale, Mr. Hernandez captures the wonder of childhood â€" the joy of imagination, an appreciation for comic books and all the ultimately petty but seemingly world-shattering trials and tribulations of friendships during that time in one’s life. The 120-page story is told in six-panel grids that reminded me of Sunday newspaper comic strips, which I devoured in my youth. “Marble Season” is published by Drawn & Quarterly.

As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.

A Doubleheader at the Met for a Mezzo-Soprano

For any opera singer one performance can be enough to put a strain on her vocal cords but what about performing two major roles in the same day?

On Saturday at the Metropolitan Opera the mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop will lend her voice not only to the matinee production of Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites” as Mother Marie, but she will also step into the role of Fricka for the the 8 p.m. performance of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold.” Stephanie Blythe, who was to sing the role, has fallen ill.

According to the Met, a dual performance of this kind is a rarity. It said that the most recent example at the Met was when the tenor Marcello Giordani sang in Berlioz’s “Damnation de Faust” and Puccini’s ”Madama Butterfly” in 2008. Before that, the Met’s last recorded instance was in 1961.

Big Ticket | Splendid Views Sans Noise, Sold for $13 Million

Tina Fineberg for The New York Times The Costas Kondylis-designed 200 Chambers Street condo has amenities including an indoor lap pool and a courtyard garden with a waterfall.

An artfully configured but never-before-inhabited combination of three penthouses on the 30th floor at 200 Chambers Street â€" a 2005 Costas Kondylis creation that bills itself as TriBeCa’s pioneer luxury condominium â€" sold for $13 million and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.

The sale went through despite a messy legal dispute between the listing broker and the buyer.

The residence, PHC, was customized by its original owner, an Italian billionaire who died before he could move in, and had been on the market since 2011, when the initial asking price was $17.99 million. Monthly carrying charges are $5,199.12, and residents of 200 Chambers are treated to amenities including a state-of-the-art gym, a rooftop terrace, a courtyard garden with a waterfall, and a 50-foot-long indoor lap pool with ceiling skylights. The building’s Warren Street service entrance has convenient access to TriBeCa’s Whole Foods marketplace.

The glass-sheathed penthouse has four bedrooms, four and a half baths, and a spare-no-expense master suite with views of the Hudson River and the Palisades. The cavernous master bath has a raised limestone tub, a two-person limestone shower and floor-to-ceiling windows that reveal panoramic East River views. Two of the other three bedrooms have en-suite baths.

Privacy was a penchant of the original owner, who evidently had sensitive hearing and stipulated that the entire unit, which has nearly 4,700 square feet of living and entertainment space, be soundproofed. The listing assures prospective occupants that the residence is protected by “acoustic attenuation features throughout, to avoid disturbance from any outside noise.”

The great room has an impressive 53-foot-long wall of glass, and the kitchen has Carrara marble countertops and the capacity to feed a crowd. According to the listing, “The Poliform stainless-steel kitchen is designed with catering in mind.”

After the asking price was reduced to $16.5 million in March of last year, the empty residence found itself a serious internal suitor, David Wilkenfeld, a businessman who already owns a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath condo on the seventh floor. Struck by penthouse envy, Mr. Wilkenfeld, the founder of Promgirl.com, an online purveyor of prom finery, and a racehorse owner whose gelding, Vyjack, is entered in the Kentucky Derby, ultimately agreed to pay $13 million for the top-floor showplace in November.

Forbes.com reported that Promgirl recorded $80 million in sales in 2012. Vyjack, a $100,000 colt Mr. Wilkenfeld named after his parents, Vivienne and Jack, finished a close third behind Verrazano in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Racetrack last month, cementing his Derby credentials.

But last fall Mr. Wilkenfeld apparently had postcontract, prepurchase misgivings. He claimed that the listing broker, Daniel Hedaya, the president of Platinum Properties, had misled him on several points, among them the precise size of the unit, its carrying charges and, most seriously, his role, which was to represent only the seller, a limited-liability company, PH Chambers 398357R. Mr. Hedaya, who denied the veracity of the accusations, was on his honeymoon in St. Barts when he learned that Mr. Wilkenfeld was planning to sue him and sought, among other concessions, a $2 million rebate on the sale.

The official paperwork for the sale for $13 million, a 21 percent dip from the most recent asking price, was processed without incident on April 11, when the deed to the penthouse was transferred to Mr. Wilkenfeld, and lawyers for both parties said the planned suit had been settled privately. Mr. Wilkenfeld’s seventh-floor condo is listed for sale with Douglas Elliman Real Estate for $5.75 million.

A relieved Mr. Hedaya, for whom this sale set a personal record, said, “All the issues have been resolved, and there is no pending litigation.” He said the penthouse, with its high-end finishes and custom touches, was one of the most spectacular units he’d ever seen or marketed. The lawyer representing Platinum Properties, Neil A. Capobianco of Dentons, confirmed the settlement, as did Mr. Wilkenfeld’s lawyer, Adam Leitman Bailey.

“My client is very happy with the outcome,” Mr. Bailey said, “and very busy with prom season and a certain horse in a certain race.”

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

Popcast: Red Bull, Highly Caffeinated Tastemaker

Brian Harkin for The New York Times Bill Nace and Kim Gordon performing at the Knockdown Center in Queens on Thursday as part of the Red Bull Music Academy.

This week: the Red Bull Music Academy, a traveling music workshop and festival, calls itself “a place that’s equal parts science lab, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and Kraftwerk’s home studio.” It’s also a live-event series, and its bookings stretch out over New York City this month.

The events include concerts, installations, D.J. sets, relay-style improvisations, and lectures by Flying Lotus, Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Erykah Badu, Giorgio Moroder, KTL, Joe Lovano, Kim Gordon, and a lot more. The festival even has its own daily newspaper, with a new issue available every day through the event.

Sounds good and also utopian; sounds inherently unsustainable. But Ben Sisario, a music-business reporter for The New York Times, explains and explores with host Ben Ratliff why and how Red Bull, the Austrian energy-drink corporation, has gotten involved in heavy funding for the intersection of vanguardist music and youth culture, and whether their form of corporate branding suggests a genuinely positive innovation.

Listen above, download the MP3, or subscribe in iTunes.

RELATED

Ben Sisario on the Red Bull Music Academy

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Tracks by artists discussed this week. (Spotify users can also find it here.)

Ask a Property Manager

Next week, the Metropolitan section’s Q. and A. series will feature Doug Weinstein, the director of operations and compliance for AKAM Associates Inc., a property management company for luxury co-op and condominium buildings in New York City.

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Doug Weinstein

Mr. Weinstein, who has been working in real estate for close to 30 years, oversees all projects for the 125 buildings on AKAM’s roster.

This means fielding daily calls from co-op and condo board presidents, answering questions on capital planning, job bids and code issues, and reviewing designs for coming work or renovations.

Wondering where your maintenance check really goes? Who chooses the doorman’s uniform? Whether it’s better to buy a co-op or a condo? Share your questions in the comments section below.

We’ll pass the best on to Mr. Weinstein, with some of our own, and publish the answers next week. And let us know if you have ideas for future interview subjects â€" we’ll keep them in mind.

Playground Named for a Beastie Boy

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times A crowd of family and fans gathered in Brooklyn Heights on Friday morning for the dedication ceremony of Adam Yauch Park.

“The name’s MCA - made in Downtown Brooklyn,” Adam Yauch sings on “Oh Word?,” the eighth track on the Beastie Boys’ 2004 album “To the 5 Boroughs.’’

Before he was a world-famous rapper, film director and activist for Tibetan independence, Mr. Yauch hung out and learned to ride a bike at Palmetto Playground in Brooklyn Heights, down the block from his childhood home, where the Beastie Boys used to rehearse on the top floor.

Now, that playground, at Columbia Place and State Street, has been renamed “Adam Yauch Park” in commemoration of Mr. Yauch’s many accomplishments, as well as his lifelong devotion to New York in general and to Brooklyn in particular.

“I can think of no greater honor for someone whose reach was so global to be memorialized on the playground where he grew up,” City Councilman Stephen Levin, who represents the neighborhood, said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday.

Mr. Yauch (pronounced YOWK) died a year ago of cancer at age 47, and his death was mourned by fans the world over. As a member of the Beastie Boys, who are enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Mr. Yauch was among the most influential of hip-hop musicians.

“People told us, ‘We didn’t know your son was so famous,’” Frances Yauch, Mr. Yauch’s mother, said at the ceremony. “We didn’t know it either. We were so proud of the way Adam used his celebrity.”

The ceremony was filled with Mr. Yauch’s family, friends and fans, who cheered loudly when a sign reading “Adam Yauch Park” was unveiled. Among the speakers were John Silva, the longtime Beastie Boys manager, and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, Mr. Yauch’s bandmate of nearly 30 years.

Mr. Horovitz gave a short, heartfelt speech marked by nervousness and humor, describing Mr. Yauch as a “New York kid” with “just enough crazy” to go with his creativity and kindness. In contrast to the suits worn by city officials, Mr. Horovitz’s choice of dress stayed true to Beastie Boys style: jeans, a T-shirt and plastic sunglasses with pink temples.

A speech by Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, was especially animated. He began by saluting the people and borough of Brooklyn, as he usually does, and congratulating the Nets basketball team on its victory on Thursday night, at which point Mr. Horovitz, a Knicks fan, shook his head in apparent disapproval. But Mr. Markowitz perhaps redeemed himself with a remix of the Beastie Boys’ “An Open Letter to NYC.” He rapped gems like, “On the L, we’re doing swell / On the G, the place to be,” as the crowd laughed.

“Rap started in the Bronx,” Mr. Markowitz said. “But it took Brooklyn to refine it and bring it to the world.”

Aerosmith and James Taylor Join Benefit for Boston Bombing Victims

Aerosmith, James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett will perform along with several other bands to raise money for survivors of the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon and the families of the people killed in the attack, The Associated Press reported. The concert is scheduled for May 30 at the TD Garden. It will benefit One Fund, a collection for victims of the attack. Other musicians who have promised to perform include Jason Aldean, Boston, Extreme, Godsmack, the J. Geils Band, Carole King and New Kids on the Block. Comedians Dane Cook and Steven Wright also are included in the lineup. Tickets range from $35 to $285 and go on sale Monday.

The Sweet Spot: Blockbusters

From “Jaws” and “Star Wars” to “Hangover 3″ and other sequels, David Carr and A. O. Scott talk about the summer movie season.

Book Review Podcast: An Invisible Woman

Chip Kidd

This week in The New York Times Book Review, Liesl Schillinger reviews Claire Messud’s new novel, “The Woman Upstairs.” Ms. Schillinger writes:

Reading the title of Claire Messud’s latest novel, anyone of a literary turn of mind will immediately think of the madwoman in the attic, the 19th century’s best-known “woman upstairs.” In “Jane Eyre,” Bertha Mason was the first wife of the master of Thornfield Hall, who shut her away and, in so doing, opened the door to more than a hundred years of impassioned feminist criticism. This connection is entirely intentional, as Messud quickly makes plain. “We’re not the madwomen in the attic,” argues her “reliable,” “organized” protagonist, a teacher named Nora Eldridge, referring to unmarried women like herself, “numerous” in their 20s and 30s, “positively legion” in their 40s and 50s. “We’re the quiet woman at the end of the third-floor hallway, whose trash is always tidy, who smiles brightly in the stairwell.” Outwardly they may seem “benignant” (to use a Brontëan word), but inwardly, Nora declares, they seethe. “People don’t want to worry about he Woman Upstairs,” she reflects. “Not a soul registers that we are furious. We’re completely invisible.” In time, she will resolve to “use that invisibility, to make it burn.

On this week’s podcast, Ms. Messud discusses her novel; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Ramona Ausubel talks about her new collection of short stories, “A Guide to Being Born”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.

A Tough Fish Undaunted by Land

Dave Taft Glass eels in Staten Island.

Even in an environment as man-made as New York City’s, nature stubbornly persists â€" in park woodlands, empty lots and between the cracks of the sidewalk. In an occasional series, Dave Taft, a senior-level park ranger in New York City with the National Park Service, will be offering close-in portraits of the city’s plants and animals.

The Atlantic salmon and American eel each makes an epic voyage, but an eel’s greenish color, snakelike proportions and bottom-dwelling habits make it harder to love than a gleaming silver salmon. In terms of relative abundance and sheer toughness, the hands-down winner is the lowly American eel (Anguilla rostrata).

Salmon and eels find homes in fresh and salt water, but from there the two diverge. Salmon are “anadromous”: They begin life in fresh water and journey to the sea to reach adulthood. Eels are “catadromous”: Every American eel is born in the Sargasso Sea, in an area of the Atlantic south of Bermuda, and then swims thousands of miles to ascend the smallest of freshwater creeks to spend its adult life.

Eels do not require the cold, pristine streams that salmon do, and can surprisingly be found in landlocked ponds and lakes, in all five boroughs. Adults can make pilgrimages of hundreds of yards overland to find water in dry periods and can remain alive for hours provided that their gills remain damp. Juvenile eels are proficient climbers and can clamber up out of the water and over low obstructions during migration. Here in New York City, where the process of damming of creeks dates hundreds of years to the Dutch and English, a few creeks even now entertain spawning runs.

Beginning in March and tapering off in mid- May, juvenile eels, who have spent the fall and winter drifting with the ocean currents from the Sargasso, swim off to make their way up coastal waterways along the East Coast. They are as soft as an earthworm and about the same size, and there is hardly a fish, mammal or bird that is not interested in an eel-meal. So the eels travel by night.

If this weren’t enough to ensure safe passage, they employ another trick: larval eels are transparent, earning them the name “glass eels.” Upon entering fresh water, they begin their transformation to more respectable eel-like colors, but initially they are the ghosts of the fish world, invisible against the nighttime bottoms of the still frigid northeast waters.

I grew up on the southern edge of Brooklyn and caught many eels with my brother while fishing in places like Sheepshead Bay. There was a particular thrill to catching the three-feet-long eels â€" their writhing bodies impossible to grip for their thick mucus slime.

Once they were hoisted onto land, their frenzied thrashing was both thrilling and shocking, especially to a pair of 11-year-old boys well acquainted with trouble.

Another favorite pastime was overturning the flat stones found at the head of the Mill Basin or one or two other local creeks to hunt for young eels, or “elvers.” We might have thought more about these catches â€" eels are highly prized by more than other fish and birds, there’s serious money in those wriggling bodies. The still-clear glass eels hit $2,000 a pound on the Asian market in 2012. With prices like these, it is no wonder this fish is now imperiled.

With Tiny Libraries, Bringing Free Literature to the Streets

They look like trellises and fishtanks, spacesuits and mailboxes. One squeezes into the cracks of a historic building. Others offer built-in seating.

New York, meet your newest public libraries.

Holding no more than about 20 books for old and young, the 10 new Little Free Libraries â€" miniature lending libraries where anyone can take or leave a book under the honor system â€" will pop up all over downtown Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, and will stand until Sept. 1. A joint project of the PEN World Voices Festival and the Architectural League of New York, the libraries were designed and built by the winners of a small architectural competition, stocked with donations from publishers and looked after by nearby community partners including the Cooper Union, Henry Street Settlement and LaMaMa.

Until now, there has been only one Little Free Library in New York: a self-installed location that resembles an oversized mailbox on a residential street in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. That puts the city behind such disparate competitors as Mesa, Ariz. (three miniature libraries, according to a global Little Free Library map) and Wauwatosa, Wisc. (six).

Jakab Orsos, the director of the PEN World Voices Festival, which features events and workshops with international authors this week, said he heard about the Little Free Library concept last year and almost immediately decided to bring some to New York.

“It’s such a rich, such a romantic idea,” he said on Thursday, waxing lyrical about the pleasures of literature. “It really restores my faith, this connectedness â€" how people are actually harboring the beauty of reading and the book and the importance of the book.”

A panel of judges winnowed nearly 80 submissions for the new libraries down to 10, favoring local architects, innovation and the use of sustainable or recycled materials. The teams will install their libraries on Saturday afternoon, when the PEN Festival will offer self-guided walking tours to each location. (Would-be library visitors can pick up maps at the Architectural League’s booth at the IDEAS CITY street festival on the Bowery, near the New Museum.)

PEN will stock each library with a selection of children’s and adult books donated by publishers. The library outside the Abrons Arts Center at the Henry Street Settlement, for instance, will lend popular titles like one of the books in the “Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins and “The Tiger’s Wife” by Téa Obreht alongside more classic fare, like books by Virginia Woolf and the children’s favorite Beverly Cleary. Each community partner will look after the book shelters until September, when the organizers will re-evaluate them and decide whether to keep them in place longer.

The libraries range in size from overgrown birdfeeders to a series of book-hiding benches; one of the largest will be outside St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School on Prince Street in SoHo, where the designers, Marcelo Ertorteguy and Sara Valente of Stereotank, will install a phone-booth-like structure with open sides and books in an enclosed upper alcove. “We wanted to create a Little Free Library you can inhabit,” Mr. Ertorteguy said.

Outside the Abrons Center at the Henry Street Settlement, Brigette Borders and Forrest Jessee will install a series of wood-slatted seats over three existing concrete benches, with the books sheltering neatly under some of the seat backs. Anybody who borrows a book will find a special bookmark inside that offers a self-guided “reading journey” to Ms. Borders and Mr. Jessee’s favorite reading spots, like the Housing Works Bookstore Café and some of SoHo’s tiny parks â€" ending, of course, with another Little Free Library.

The two designers, who form a partnership called Studio Point 0, said their Little Free Library reflected the social nature of reading, from the reading journeys to the switchback seats that encourage readers at their location to face each other.

“People like to read in groups, like to read in public,” said Ms. Borders. “We’re hoping to bring people together around the activity of reading.”

Cooper Union’s Little Free Library will be installed not outside a building, but in the gaps of the school’s own library building, in part to honor the building’s history as New York City’s first free public reading room. The recessed gaps between columns in the building’s stone facade will house shelves of folded steel plates holding books, so that the two libraries â€" large and little â€" will all but merge, said Michael Young, an assistant professor at Cooper Union who oversaw the student designers who proposed and built the concept. (The lead designers were Maja Hjerten Knutsonand Chris Taleff.)

Mr. Orsos said he was impressed with the quality of designs and hopeful that New Yorkers would embrace their new libraries. But, he added, he was prepared for the reality that on these busy street corners, the structures could easily disappear overnight.

“Yes, it’s beautiful, it’s a romantic idea, everyone is going to be happy, but in two days’ time, they may see an end of a beautiful project. So our sorrow is embedded in it,” he said, adding that perhaps not all of the libraries were destined for happy endings.

As writers and readers of great literature know, he said, “Life is life, and not everything is rosy.”

With Tiny Libraries, Bringing Free Literature to the Streets

They look like trellises and fishtanks, spacesuits and mailboxes. One squeezes into the cracks of a historic building. Others offer built-in seating.

New York, meet your newest public libraries.

Holding no more than about 20 books for old and young, the 10 new Little Free Libraries â€" miniature lending libraries where anyone can take or leave a book under the honor system â€" will pop up all over downtown Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, and will stand until Sept. 1. A joint project of the PEN World Voices Festival and the Architectural League of New York, the libraries were designed and built by the winners of a small architectural competition, stocked with donations from publishers and looked after by nearby community partners including the Cooper Union, Henry Street Settlement and LaMaMa.

Until now, there has been only one Little Free Library in New York: a self-installed location that resembles an oversized mailbox on a residential street in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. That puts the city behind such disparate competitors as Mesa, Ariz. (three miniature libraries, according to a global Little Free Library map) and Wauwatosa, Wisc. (six).

Jakab Orsos, the director of the PEN World Voices Festival, which features events and workshops with international authors this week, said he heard about the Little Free Library concept last year and almost immediately decided to bring some to New York.

“It’s such a rich, such a romantic idea,” he said on Thursday, waxing lyrical about the pleasures of literature. “It really restores my faith, this connectedness â€" how people are actually harboring the beauty of reading and the book and the importance of the book.”

A panel of judges winnowed nearly 80 submissions for the new libraries down to 10, favoring local architects, innovation and the use of sustainable or recycled materials. The teams will install their libraries on Saturday afternoon, when the PEN Festival will offer self-guided walking tours to each location. (Would-be library visitors can pick up maps at the Architectural League’s booth at the IDEAS CITY street festival on the Bowery, near the New Museum.)

PEN will stock each library with a selection of children’s and adult books donated by publishers. The library outside the Abrons Arts Center at the Henry Street Settlement, for instance, will lend popular titles like one of the books in the “Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins and “The Tiger’s Wife” by Téa Obreht alongside more classic fare, like books by Virginia Woolf and the children’s favorite Beverly Cleary. Each community partner will look after the book shelters until September, when the organizers will re-evaluate them and decide whether to keep them in place longer.

The libraries range in size from overgrown birdfeeders to a series of book-hiding benches; one of the largest will be outside St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral School on Prince Street in SoHo, where the designers, Marcelo Ertorteguy and Sara Valente of Stereotank, will install a phone-booth-like structure with open sides and books in an enclosed upper alcove. “We wanted to create a Little Free Library you can inhabit,” Mr. Ertorteguy said.

Outside the Abrons Center at the Henry Street Settlement, Brigette Borders and Forrest Jessee will install a series of wood-slatted seats over three existing concrete benches, with the books sheltering neatly under some of the seat backs. Anybody who borrows a book will find a special bookmark inside that offers a self-guided “reading journey” to Ms. Borders and Mr. Jessee’s favorite reading spots, like the Housing Works Bookstore Café and some of SoHo’s tiny parks â€" ending, of course, with another Little Free Library.

The two designers, who form a partnership called Studio Point 0, said their Little Free Library reflected the social nature of reading, from the reading journeys to the switchback seats that encourage readers at their location to face each other.

“People like to read in groups, like to read in public,” said Ms. Borders. “We’re hoping to bring people together around the activity of reading.”

Cooper Union’s Little Free Library will be installed not outside a building, but in the gaps of the school’s own library building, in part to honor the building’s history as New York City’s first free public reading room. The recessed gaps between columns in the building’s stone facade will house shelves of folded steel plates holding books, so that the two libraries â€" large and little â€" will all but merge, said Michael Young, an assistant professor at Cooper Union who oversaw the student designers who proposed and built the concept. (The lead designers were Maja Hjerten Knutsonand Chris Taleff.)

Mr. Orsos said he was impressed with the quality of designs and hopeful that New Yorkers would embrace their new libraries. But, he added, he was prepared for the reality that on these busy street corners, the structures could easily disappear overnight.

“Yes, it’s beautiful, it’s a romantic idea, everyone is going to be happy, but in two days’ time, they may see an end of a beautiful project. So our sorrow is embedded in it,” he said, adding that perhaps not all of the libraries were destined for happy endings.

As writers and readers of great literature know, he said, “Life is life, and not everything is rosy.”

‘Lucky Guy’ Pays Off for Investors

“Lucky Guy,” the Broadway play by Nora Ephron, which stars Tom Hanks as the newspaper columnist Mike McAlary, has recouped its $3.6 million capitalization after only eight weeks’ worth of performances, the show’s producers said.

Preview performances began on March 1 and since the official opening on April 1 the production has consistently grossed more than $1 million at the box office each week.

Directed by George C. Wolfe, “Lucky Guy” opened to generally positive reviews and was nominated for six Tony Awards on Tuesday, including a best actor nod for Mr. Hanks, best play and best direction for Mr. Wolfe.

The show is currently scheduled to end its run at the Broadhurst Theater on July 3.

In a Church’s Sanctuary, Theater With a Dose of Reality

David Gonzalez/The New York Times

Over the last few weeks, moments sacred and profane have played out each night in the boxy, cinderblock sanctuary of Nativity Church on Second Avenue. The altar, candles and tabernacle have been put away, replaced by a bare-bones set where the youthful cast of “Stand-Up Tragedy” confront and comfort one another under the gaze of an unblinking Christ.

The church is a stand-in for the play’s Trinity Mission School, where an idealistic white teacher tries to save a bright but troubled Latino teenager. Its Lower East Side location lent the production a certain authenticity of place that appealed to Category 7, which is staging this revival of Bill Cain’s 1989 play.

They had no idea at first just how perfect. The church is where the playwright - a Jesuit priest - celebrated Mass during the 1980s, when he taught at the nearby Nativity Mission Center, the middle school that inspired him to write the play in the first place.

“I just wanted a downtown church, and I didn’t realize until later that I got the genuine article,” said David G. Schultz, the troupe’s artistic director. “That’s where Bill Cain said Mass in the ’80s. That’s the resurrected Christ on the wall, the figure he used to lay his hands on for solace when he went out to teach. There is an incredible energy in that place.”

The vibe is palpable both in the work and the setting.  These same pews - where Dorothy Day once worshiped during her later years at the Catholic Worker around the corner - was where a generation of Nativity schoolboys also prayed. It was where their parents pleaded silently for deliverance from the evils lurking outside.

Father Cain â€" who had been director of the Boston Shakespeare Festival before coming to New York - said teaching at the school was his “day job” as he became a playwright. He realized at school that the lives of his young charges were too complicated to be fixed by simple solutions or pep talks. It taught him how to be a teacher, and in turn, a playwright who drew on his experiences there, which he chronicled in diaries.

“The trope is always the white guy going in to save black and brown kids,” Father Cain said.  “One day I went to get a kid who had missed school. When I got to his house, I realized it was more complex than just getting him to school. The family was in housing that was untenable. The context that kid was in was overwhelming, not just for him, but even for grown-ups with all the advantages. What one has to do to get out of poverty is not a romantic little journey, but a serious struggle.”

The result was a play that combines sardonic humor, blood-boiling anger and heartbreaking tragedy to draw attention to a world that may have vanished from the gentrified Lower East Side but persists in other parts of the city and country. Several students from La Salle Academy next door have roles in the play, giving it a jolt of real-life teenage energy. But the play is not a documentary, it’s a forceful treatise on good intentions gone terribly wrong.

The play, which ends its limited run on Saturday, has drawn modest crowds who have stayed afterward some nights to discuss the issues raised on stage: what can outsiders - even those with good intentions â€" expect in a poor neighborhood; how did the real Nativity school change lives; and what are the overlooked gifts of those who struggle each days against the odds and indifference.

Father Cain - as well as the members of Category 7 - hoped the production would also attract new audiences, from those who have not been to a play to theatergoers who have not encountered its themes in a real-life setting, even if their immigrant grandparents probably did.

“One of my theories of writing is to show people their hidden greatness,” said Father Cain, who also has the television series “Nothing Sacred” among his credits. “I also wanted to say to the theatergoing world, which is a white world,  ‘Wake up and notice these beautiful and extraordinary people.’  There is a privilege to joining this world, to get out of your own narrow little world.”

Manhattan’s Nativity school itself existed to expand the world of its students. It closed last year, the profits from the building’s sale pumped into two remaining Nativity-style schools, the Bronx’s St. Ignatius School in Hunts Point and Brooklyn’s Jesuit Prep in Crown Heights. Both of those are in danger of closing at the end of this semester due to a combined deficit that  surpasses $1.3 million.

What they did was not altruistic. It was a mission. During an after-show discussion last week, Father Cain put it in the kind of plot terms understood by any dramatist.

“It’s a lifeboat,” he said. “And the job is to keep everybody in. The loss of one is the loss of the world.”

A reminder of that confronted them when they filed out of the quiet church into the festive din of Second Avenue. Right across the street was a funeral parlor.

This Week’s Movies: ‘Iron Man 3,’ ‘What Maisie Knew’ and ‘Something in the Air’

In this week’s video, Times critics share their thoughts on “Iron Man 3,” “What Maisie Knew” and “Something in the Air.” Find all of this week’s reviews here.

This Week’s Movies: ‘Iron Man 3,’ ‘What Maisie Knew’ and ‘Something in the Air’

In this week’s video, Times critics share their thoughts on “Iron Man 3,” “What Maisie Knew” and “Something in the Air.” Find all of this week’s reviews here.

25 Gas Stations Fined for Price-Gouging After Hurricane

Barton Silverman/The New York Times Drivers waited for gas on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy. (The station shown is not one of those found to have gouged prices.)

Twenty-five gas stations in New York State agreed to pay a total of $167,850 in fines for price-gouging in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced on Thursday.

The stations included a Lukoil on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx that raised its price by $1.10 per gallon after the storm, from $4.29 to $5.39, even as the wholesale price the station paid fell by one cent, the attorney general’s office said.

Another station that paid a fine, a Mobil on Crescent Street in Long Island City, Queens, raised its price by $1.03 per gallon after the storm, from $3.86 to $4.89, while the wholesale price fell by two cents.

“As New Yorkers were sitting in lines waiting for hours to buy critical supplies of gasoline, some shady business owners were trying to make a fast buck at their expense,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “Today, we are sending a powerful message that ripping off New Yorkers during a time of crisis is against the law and we will do everything in our power to hold them accountable.”

The attorney general’s office received hundreds of complaints of price-gouging after the storm. Mr. Schneiderman said that investigations were still pending against dozens of other stations.

Furs, Putin and Music and Ballet, Too, at New Mariinsky Theater Gala

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia â€" At the gala concert on Thursday evening that formally opened Mariinsky II, the $700 million companion to the opulent 19th-century Mariinsky Theater here, the theme was the union of old and new. The point was to show off the technical capabilities of the limestone-and-glass house while assuring the well-heeled, well-furred audience, which included President Vladimir V. Putin, that the Mariinsky’s traditions would be upheld.

During the two-and-a-half-hour performance led by Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky’s tireless artistic director, the present and future were arranged so they faced â€" and followed â€" the past. The virtuosic stage moved up, down, left and right, but the set was dominated by a replica of part of the old Mariinsky’s glamorous horseshoe auditorium. An enormous video screen offered a shifting display of lush backdrops from the theater’s glorious history.

There was a smooth passage from Millicent Hodson’s reconstruction of Nijinsky’s still-startling “Rite of Spring,” about to celebrate its centenary, to a coolly ferocious excerpt from “Sacre,” Sasha Waltz’s new take on the “Rite.” (Why were fresh and recent ballets represented, but not contemporary operas?) Both were danced beautifully by the Mariinsky’s storied ballet company, which may end up dominating the old theater while opera takes primary residence in the new, the same division that exists between the Paris Opera’s halls.

Time also traveled during the vocal performances in the cool, blond-wood theater, more than amply accented with Swarovski crystals. Plácido Domingo, who has lately ventured into the baritone repertory, returned (at 72) to one of his favorite tenor parts, Wagner’s Siegmund, singing the love ode “Winterstürme” with ardency and just a bit of strain.

Soon after, Anna Netrebko showed why she is the biggest of the stars Mr. Gergiev has nurtured at the Mariinsky, giving a thrilling preview of Verdi’s Lady Macbeth, which she will perform complete for the first time next year. She stalked her way through the snarling “Vieni, t’affretta” in a blazing, generous performance that bodes well for her gradual move into the great Verdi roles.

The violinist Leonidas Kavakos and the violist Yuri Bashmet each had honey-toned solos accompanying dance selections. Sections from ballets including Petipa’s “Bayadère” and Balanchine’s “Jewels” alternated with an array of opera arias, including the coronation scene, featuring the bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin, from Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov,” and a selection from Gounod’s “Faust,” with René Pape a gruffly powerful Méphistophélès.

Ekaterina Semenchuk’s lively rendition of the “Chanson Bohémienne” from “Carmen” was followed by the eminent ballerina Diana Vishneva’s sparkling performance of Alberto Alonso’s choreography for Carmen’s “Habanera.” (Ms. Vishneva will perform Béjart’s classic “Boléro” at a performance in her honor on Saturday.)

The intermission-less evening sometimes lagged. A group of the company’s young artists gave a meandering performance of an ensemble from Rossini’s “Viaggio a Reims,” and the ballets included Roland Petit’s lame pas de deux “Leda and the Swan.”

But a tag-team take on “Là ci darem la mano” from “Don Giovanni,” with Ms. Netrebko’s Zerlina being squired by five different Dons, was charming. And the mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina gave a melting, genuinely seductive performance of “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint-Saëns’s “Samson et Dalila.” At the end the entire company joined onstage in the soaring finale of Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta,” which Ms. Netrebko is to perform Friday afternoon.

It wasn’t Mr. Gergiev’s finest evening musically: the orchestra often felt staid and much of the conducting was sluggish, far from the galvanic effect he can have at his best. But the house’s acoustics are lucid and clean; the orchestra came together in a rich blend but individual voices â€" a harp, a piano â€" emerged clearly. And celebrating his 60th birthday on Thursday, Mr. Gergiev must have been simply relieved that the seemingly endless headache of building the gleaming new theater was finally over.

Furs, Putin and Music and Ballet, Too, at New Mariinsky Theater Gala

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia â€" At the gala concert on Thursday evening that formally opened Mariinsky II, the $700 million companion to the opulent 19th-century Mariinsky Theater here, the theme was the union of old and new. The point was to show off the technical capabilities of the limestone-and-glass house while assuring the well-heeled, well-furred audience, which included President Vladimir V. Putin, that the Mariinsky’s traditions would be upheld.

During the two-and-a-half-hour performance led by Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky’s tireless artistic director, the present and future were arranged so they faced â€" and followed â€" the past. The virtuosic stage moved up, down, left and right, but the set was dominated by a replica of part of the old Mariinsky’s glamorous horseshoe auditorium. An enormous video screen offered a shifting display of lush backdrops from the theater’s glorious history.

There was a smooth passage from Millicent Hodson’s reconstruction of Nijinsky’s still-startling “Rite of Spring,” about to celebrate its centenary, to a coolly ferocious excerpt from “Sacre,” Sasha Waltz’s new take on the “Rite.” (Why were fresh and recent ballets represented, but not contemporary operas?) Both were danced beautifully by the Mariinsky’s storied ballet company, which may end up dominating the old theater while opera takes primary residence in the new, the same division that exists between the Paris Opera’s halls.

Time also traveled during the vocal performances in the cool, blond-wood theater, more than amply accented with Swarovski crystals. Plácido Domingo, who has lately ventured into the baritone repertory, returned (at 72) to one of his favorite tenor parts, Wagner’s Siegmund, singing the love ode “Winterstürme” with ardency and just a bit of strain.

Soon after, Anna Netrebko showed why she is the biggest of the stars Mr. Gergiev has nurtured at the Mariinsky, giving a thrilling preview of Verdi’s Lady Macbeth, which she will perform complete for the first time next year. She stalked her way through the snarling “Vieni, t’affretta” in a blazing, generous performance that bodes well for her gradual move into the great Verdi roles.

The violinist Leonidas Kavakos and the violist Yuri Bashmet each had honey-toned solos accompanying dance selections. Sections from ballets including Petipa’s “Bayadère” and Balanchine’s “Jewels” alternated with an array of opera arias, including the coronation scene, featuring the bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin, from Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov,” and a selection from Gounod’s “Faust,” with René Pape a gruffly powerful Méphistophélès.

Ekaterina Semenchuk’s lively rendition of the “Chanson Bohémienne” from “Carmen” was followed by the eminent ballerina Diana Vishneva’s sparkling performance of Alberto Alonso’s choreography for Carmen’s “Habanera.” (Ms. Vishneva will perform Béjart’s classic “Boléro” at a performance in her honor on Saturday.)

The intermission-less evening sometimes lagged. A group of the company’s young artists gave a meandering performance of an ensemble from Rossini’s “Viaggio a Reims,” and the ballets included Roland Petit’s lame pas de deux “Leda and the Swan.”

But a tag-team take on “Là ci darem la mano” from “Don Giovanni,” with Ms. Netrebko’s Zerlina being squired by five different Dons, was charming. And the mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina gave a melting, genuinely seductive performance of “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint-Saëns’s “Samson et Dalila.” At the end the entire company joined onstage in the soaring finale of Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta,” which Ms. Netrebko is to perform Friday afternoon.

It wasn’t Mr. Gergiev’s finest evening musically: the orchestra often felt staid and much of the conducting was sluggish, far from the galvanic effect he can have at his best. But the house’s acoustics are lucid and clean; the orchestra came together in a rich blend but individual voices â€" a harp, a piano â€" emerged clearly. And celebrating his 60th birthday on Thursday, Mr. Gergiev must have been simply relieved that the seemingly endless headache of building the gleaming new theater was finally over.

No Flash at the Met

Dear Diary:

It was so obviously Barbra, underneath her enormous glasses and big straw hat, that I figured the best thing to do was pretend I didn’t notice, so I moseyed back to my post somewhere between Van Gogh’s cypresses and Gauguin’s walking stick.

There weren’t a lot of people in the Met that day. The one rule, other than please don’t touch, that had to be commonly enforced was: no flash.

There’s always a flicker of tension the moment before a flash goes off. As a guard you learn to tune into it â€" to feel the pressure behind the bulb, just before it irreversibly sucks a shade of color from the 19th-century pigments.

I watched the big straw hat pull up in front of Vincent’s wheat fields, and form her legendary hand into a clutch.

“Wait, Barbra, no flash!” I was as shocked as she was how the words had popped out. We exchanged a look, shared embarrassment.

“It’s O.K., I’m not her,” she said, and walked off, a goddess disguised as a beggar.

Then a tall man in a silk shirt stepped to me, wide-eyed and incredulous.

“Do you know who you just told not to use a flash?”

“Who?”

“That was Bette Midler!”

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