An apparent effort by the billionaire investor Michael Novogratz to enlarge one of his Amagansett properties by adding an unopened road to it was stymied last week by a stop-work order.

Anthony Lombardo was in the Army in 1952, stationed in Germany and sitting in a restaurant with a friend, when they overheard the people at the next table discussing Verdi’s “Otello.”

Mr. Lombardo, who was 87 on Nov. 23, remembers it well. “I never felt stupid in my life,” he said, “but — opera? Shakespeare? And I said, ‘What are they talking about?’ And my friend said, ‘Aah, they’re just being pedantic.’ And I said, ‘What’s that mean?’ ”

The Hampton Ballet Theatre School will bring holiday cheer to East Hampton with its annual production of “The Nutcracker,” which opens Friday at Guild Hall.