There were 325 people waiting to go to Central City for an evening of opera on Thursday — 3 dozen music critics and a large contingent from Opera America, the international service organization — and just one bus.

Five more buses soon hove into sight, though. We boarded, to find bags with water bottles and splits of champagne waiting in the seats, and set off toward the mountains in the west.

Central City Opera doesn’t have the spectacular setting of Santa Fe Opera, but it still boasts mountains, and has the charm of a old mining town. The opera house itself, lovingly restored, opened 130 years ago. It’s intimate and acoustically felicitous.

There were certain logistical problems in terms of getting everyone fed (in the next-door Teller House), and it was announced that the curtain would be held from the original 8:30 p.m. start time to 8:45. In fact, it was almost 9 before the last stragglers found their way to their seats, and 9 straight up before the music started.

The opera was Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, with St. Louis native Phyllis Pancella in the title role, and updated to the mid-20th century.

By the time the buses got back to the dropoff point, it was after midnight. These are long days, and solidly packed. At least tonight’s opera, the production of Nixon in China that originated at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, is within walking distance.