You have to separate the sensuous presence of a Christo and Jeanne-Claude installation from all the hype surrounding it. There really is something transporting about "The Gates" ' theatrical quality, its conferral of specialness on the people who experience it, its sudden lark-song brightness amid the dreary winter background. But the self-consciousness that the occasion has created and the pushing and shoving crowds are also enough to make you want to climb one of those gray, wintry trees to get away from it all. Indeed, having made it to the crowded roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I can say that the best view is from above; that is to say, the best view of "The Gates" is from the upper floors of the exclusive buildings along Fifth Avenue. So much for playing pranks on the powers that be. Down below, the rest of us have to fight what Christo and Jeanne-Claude have created in order to enjoy the creation of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Like all their events, "The Gates" is both a tribute to the pair's imagination, and a calamity of their will.