Summer is quickly slipping away so get out and enjoy these dog days of August, and start filling up your September calendar too.  Next weekend is the start of the Metropolitan Opera’s Outdoor Opera Festival. And if you’re looking for an unusual tour, head to Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for their historical trolley tours.

Aug. 29-Sept. 7.  The Metropolitan Opera’s Summer HD Festival

It’s that most wonderful time of the year, when the MET presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza.  This year, there will be  10 screenings of performances featuring the company’s leading artists in a varied selection of operas by Bartók, Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi.  And the series opens with a special screening of West Side Story. Get the details.

Trolley Tours of a Cemetery?

Yes tomatoes, we are definitely adding Green-Wood cemetery to our list of must dos. Located in Brooklyn, Green-Wood is a magnet for bird watchers and history buffs.  Located on 478 spectacular acres  it is a Revolutionary War Historic site (the battle of Long island was fought there) and it has one of the largest outdoor collections of 19th- and 20th-century statuary and mausoleums. Among the cemetery’s permanent residents are Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Charles Ebbets, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Horace Greeley, Civil War generals, baseball legends, politicians, artists, entertainers and inventors. And on Wednesdays and Sundays they offer trolley tours!  Get the details.