A Hairy, Harvard-Filled Eve as New York Galas Top Trump Gridlock

  • New staging of ‘Samson and Delilah’ Opens Met Opera Season
  • At Blavatnik awards, Salk scientist says iron fights infection
From left, Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer, Judith-Ann Corrente, Willem Kooyker, Suzie and Bruce KovnerPhotographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg

Monday night in New York was a pain in the neck, what with the gridlock from the United Nations General Assembly week and President Trump in town. But two sets of gala-goers made it through the congestion, coaxed by vivid spectacle and life-saving advice.

At the Metropolitan Opera House, a new production of “Samson and Delilah" opened the season, with dancers cavorting and climbing up and down a giant gold temple. All for a story revolving around a Biblical man well-endowed with hair follicles but lacking great judgment in women.