Fifth Avenue is used to seeing everything; it’s famous for films, high fashion, and luxury hotels. But perhaps it did not expect to be enveloped by the notes of ‘Va Pensiero.’

Instead, the International Friends of Festival Verdi amazed those present at the Gala by involving them in an unexpected opera performance initiated by a ‘plainclothes’ choir that had infiltrated the audience. Music, food, and spectacle amazed the many Americans who attended the event and offered them a taste of what Parma has to offer.