DOKTOR IN THE HOUSE.

Thomas Hampson, who this month graces the cover of OPERA NEWS, seems a perfect match for the works of Ferruccio Busoni. Read the profile of this cosmopolitan American by Martin Bernheimer, and you discover a talented singer of great intelligence, equal curiosity and even more energy. Follow that article with Christopher Hailey's portrait of the creator of Doktor Faust, which will be presented for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera early in the new year, and you meet a composer with almost the same lineup of attributes. There are so many other similarities that the word "palimpsest" comes to mind. Both men are polyglots, both largely expatriate, both passionate about subjects other than music, both bibliophiles.

Talk to Thomas Hampson about almost anything, and you quickly get a theory -- a framework that allows for a systematic discussion. Accompanying him into an interview last year, I asked his opinion of the European Community's sanctions against Austria following the furor over the inclusion of the right-wing Freedom Party in the ruling coalition. Before he got to the stage, Hampson had compared and contrasted Austria's position with that of an Italian province sometime in the postwar era and the fate of rightist candidates in France; a perfect blue book of a response. A theory -- and probably a list of further reading -- certainly would have followed if time had allowed. Busoni was a theorist, too: attracted by futurism, he developed his own model of composition and articulated an aesthetic of dramaturgy that he implemented in his last three operas. If Busoni's music can be made to sizzle, Thomas Hampson is the man to do it.

In the October issue I announced that Brian Kellow had stepped down as executive editor ...