Forward thinking. (Viewpoint).

It's traditional in the September issue of OPERA NEWS to look forward to the coming season. But this year it is impossible not to reflect back to the events of September 11, 2001. While, as far as I know, no one has attempted to write an opera on the subject, in "On the Beat" (p. 10), features editor Brian Kellow reports that compositions by two major American composers were inspired by the attacks.

One direct result of 9/11 was that tourists shied away from New York, and the falloff certainly hurt the Met last season: for the first time in years, there were plenty of seats available for standard-repertory operas, the ones that tourists customarily help sell out. The stock-market meltdown that followed hard on the heels of the terrorist attacks has made a difficult financial situation even more pressing. Yet painful memories and the daunting challenge of raising funds in the face of a tanking stock market seem to have combined to inspire a gritty determination to forge ahead despite adversity. Both here and abroad, hard times have not led to hedged bets or a return to conservative repertory. Look at Argentina: despite an economy hardly worthy of the name, the Teatro Colon is offering a double bill of Purcell and Bartok (Dido and Aeneas and Bluebeard's Castle) and one work each by Verdi, Rameau and Berg (Don Carlo, Les Indes Galantes and Wozzeck). Closer to home, Dallas Opera is going ahead with plans for a new opera house, according to Texas music critic Scott Cantrell (see p. 58). And in "Letter from Denver" (p. 114), Marc Shulgold reports that Opera Colorado intends to expand the conservative audience of the Mile-High City by presenting theatrically vivid productions of works as diverse as Don Giovanni and Sweeney Todd.

Associate editor William V. Madison's "Winning Tickets," beginning on page 24, surveys some of 2002-03's most eagerly anticipated events, while in "Season of Song" (p. 66) assistant editor Betsy Mingo provides an exhaustive overview of performances around the world. The ...