Ok, so some of you out there might not consider free opera a win.

Personally, I had no stance on opera at all, which is a little weird given my whole career path. I do remember a sort of masochistic 20 year old Mel hearing that opera was the hardest thing to stage manage and deciding I would absolutely have to do it at some point in my life.

30 year old Mel is much smarter and think you don’t necessarily have to do the hardest version of everything to be a success… despite often doing things the hard way ;o)

All that aside, it’s true! You can check out some free opera this week in NYC. At Lincoln Center they are showing a different HD recording of an opera each night. Have you ever been at the movies and seen those Fathom events previews? I’m pretty sure that’s what this is. At any rate, the event is called the 2014 Summer HD Festival.

A friend of mine, who is an opera lover, asked me if I wanted to go watch one with her the other night, so I strolled over after work, around 6:15 PM and was surprised to see people already hanging out.

The seats were far from packed, and I’d say you’ll have no trouble getting a seat as long as you roll in around 7:15-30 PM for the 8 PM showtime… granted, I’m pretty sure the show we picked was not the most popular, since there were several recognizable titles in the line up.

Like I mentioned, it’s totally free. The Met does have a concessions stand and some poor college student with an impressive amount of hustle may try to get you to buy a seat cushion (possibly worth the $10, the seats are not super comfy – or just bring a pillow from home), but you can get through the evening thoroughly entertained, soaking in some culture and not a penny poorer.

If you do want to be a few pennies poorer, I noticed quite a few people were disappearing and returning shortly with cups of beer.

I suspect a little alcohol would definitely improve the whole opera experience. 

For our viewing pleasure, we watch The Nose – possibly the weirdest opera in existence about some Russian dude who wakes up with his nose missing. The nose is actually a character. It dances a lot. It’s easily the best part… although the random bagel lady who is clearly selling something other than bagels was pretty awesome too.

What? That sounds like Gogol’s short story, you super clever lit. people say? It is. And they opera-fied it.

Interested in a little free culture?

• Wednesday at 8 PM – Verdi’s Falstaff
• Thursday at 8 PM – Dvořák’s Rusalka
• Friday at 8 PM – Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore
• Saturday at 8 PM – Doizetti’s Don Pasquale
• Sunday at 8 PM – Massenet’s Werther
• Monday at 7:45 PM – Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin

Opera not your thing? You can also sign up to enter the raffle each day for free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park. You need to create an account here with The Public. Once you can log in, you can then enter the raffle for tickets between midnight and noon of the performance day. They’ll send you an email by 2 PM letting you know if you’ve won or not.

The Shakespeare in the Park season is officially over, but right now you can still look forward to free tickets for Public Work’s The Winter’s Tale and the Fall for Dance Festival.

Or you can take some of Broke Millennial’s advice and brush up your ushering skills to see some top notch shows without bothering with raffle tickets or super uncomfortable seats.