THERE WAS A TON OF COVERAGE ABOUT DALLAS ARTS THIS WEEKEND — locally, nationally — so rather than having you chew through it all at once, Art & Seek has decided to break it down into manageable, bite-size pieces. A two-course meal this morning.

FIRST, A LATE ADDITION/EDITION: You can read Olin Chism’s review of Otello here — along with links to other reviews (more or less glowing). But the NYTimes‘ notice just appeared this morning. Anthony Tommasini clearly loved the Winspear (“Several bigger, more significant American companies are going to envy the Dallas Opera its new home”) but was cool-to-mixed about the production (“Jitters on this momentous opening might have been a factor”).

THE WOODALL’S TIDAL WAVE OF TRAFFIC PROBLEMS: Because some freeway construction genius decided that the Woodall Rodgers Freeway had to be shut down on probably the most important weekend in the Arts District’s history, many people — here’s WFAA’s report — were predicting a tsunami of angry motorists and theatergoers straggling in hours past curtain time. But Holly Hacker in the News reports that things didn’t turn out so bad.

Not sure where she was. My wife headed out an hour early Saturday to beat the crowds and drive to Arlington. She reported Central was a heap of sitting tin.  So I drove down Ross — which wasn’t bad — but I could see the taillights for blocks on Central. And I’ve yet to figure out how the Winspear’s underground parking is supposed to work: Apparently, regular people will never be permitted access. There was a constant circling of cars driving on Flora — and being directed back out to Ross.

AND THEN THERE WERE THE TICKET LINES: The will call booth in the Winspear’s lobby just before Dracula opened had lines 15-20 people deep. Curtain time was held a few minutes, and Charles Santos, TITAS’ executive director, came out and expressed the wish that people would be patient with these early ticket-system snafus. Also, theatergoers will be figuring out the seating layout for some time. I directed several ticketholders and darned if I didn’t send one or two in the right direction. For the reviews of Dracula, go here.

BUT IF YOU STAYED for the Q&A with Philip Glass, you heard Santos make the exciting announcement that TITAS is working on bringing Glass’ opera, Einstein on the Beach, to Dallas in a year or two.