The idea that inspired Lincoln Center began during the Roaring 20s, when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. — pious and penitent son of the rascally robber baron — hoovered up blocks of Midtown Manhattan for a state-of-the-art Metropolitan Opera House.
Announcing a year's worth of events to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2009, Lincoln Center president Reynold Levy admitted that the 16-acre arts complex doesn't give up its treasures easily. 'For 50 years,' he said, 'visitors to Lincoln Center have been rewarded for traversing eleven lanes of traffic.'
