An opera-loving concert pianist is suing the NYPD after a cop allegedly tuned her up last year at The Met's premiere of "Hamlet."
Aviva Aranovich, a Juilliard graduate who has performed at Carnegie Hall, contends Officer Fernando Grace heaved her down a marble staircase following her encounter with an usher who booted her out of the Metropolitan Opera House.
"He grabbed her like you would grab a toy from your little brother and pulled her down the stairs," said her lawyer Mark Marino. "She fell down the stairs and hit her head - hard."
The petite pianist, who stands 5-foot-2 and weighs under 100 pounds, contends her bad night started when a friend seated in another section mistakenly got hold of her ticket, forcing Aranovich to grab an available seat.
When an usher asked to see her ticket, she was marooned to a standing-room area. But another usher forced her out, the suit says, after turning a deaf ear to her claim that her friend would produce the ticket at the intermission.
"It's not like she was crashing the opera," Marino said. "She went to Juilliard, she knew the people in the opera and this was a big night for her."
The suit says Aranovich then asked for help from Grace, only to fall to the floor after being "thrust down" the steps by the cop.
"She was asking for help, crying that this usher threw her out of the theater," Marino said. "I don't know why this guy got so upset."
The suit, filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, says Aranovich was handcuffed and hit with a trepassing charge - which was later dropped.
"There was no trepass," Marino said. "She had a ticket." The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, says Aranovich was bloodied and suffered a concussion and an ankle injury from her confrontation with police.
It also says cops at the 24th Precinct station house repeatedly denied her food and water.
"You're not in a position to ask for anything," a female cop allegedly told her. "If you ask again, I'm going to lose your papers and no one will know you're here."
In court documents, Aranovich charged that she was much poorer when she was sprung after 18 hours in police custody - with officers returning only about $100 of the $600 cash she had been carrying.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said cops arrested Aranovich after she refused to leave the opera and that she injured herself when she kicked out a police car's window.
Grace was also cleared of any charges that he physically hurt her, Browne said. He added that when she was arrested, Aranovich only had $121.90 - all of which was returned to her.
The fight at the opera also cost Aranovich in other ways, the suit says, as she has not closed a real estate deal since the encounter.
She hasn't been back since to the Met, either.
"She used to go once a week, on average," Marino said.
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