LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Built in the 1960s between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues (for the record, the film West Side Story was filmed there, just before the destruction of the old slums that the Center replaced), Lincoln Center is home to major institutions of American artistic and cultural life and the international scene. It is home to the most prestigious performances of opera and ballet, chamber and symphonic music. As you stroll around at night, you'll encounter many elegantly dressed New Yorkers. Five buildings, lined to the south by Damrosch Park, stretch across a vast esplanade that is not only interesting because of the presence of a fountain.

The Metropolitan Opera comes first, all in glass panels, with perfect acoustics, but with a rather impersonal decoration, proper to the time of its construction (and yet incomparably warmer than our Bastille Opera). The Metropolitan can be visited every day; the guided tour allows you to see and hear an opera in rehearsal.

But Lincoln Center is also home to the David H. Koch Theater (formerly known as the New York State Theatre), home of the New York City Ballet, whose interior design is more interesting. Across the street, on the north side, is Avery Fischer Hall, where major symphony concerts are held. On the north side of the Metropolitan is the Vivian Beaumont Theatre and, a little off-center, a building that includes the Juilliard School of Music, the largest music conservatory in America (from which Robin Williams, Jessica Chastain, and Miles Davis graduated, among others), and Alice Tully Hall, home of the Chamber Music Society and many cultural events, including the Independent Film Festival in October. There is also the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: Lincoln Center has a library that houses many books on the applied arts.

Damrosch Park is located between the State Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera. This park, a little away from the tourist flow, is pretty and even elegant with its colorful spaces and harmonies. You can have a picnic here, while waiting for a free summer evening concert. For a list of free outdoor concerts that usually take place in August, check the Lincoln Center Out of Doors section of the site.