Deryk Barker wrote:

>These are great social events, many people bring picnics which they eat
>before or after, or in the interval.

Sounds like fun.  I always loved the operas in Central Park when I lived
in New York.  Not the big Met productions but the more modest and intimate
productions presented by New York Grand Opera.  Vince LaSelva was the
director, shaking his fists at the airplanes as they flew over but
otherwise conducting respectably.

>But everybody stops everything else when the music starts.

In the park sometimes you hear the tinkling of glasses, but that's it.

Dave Runnion