Great is Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera. But much of its scenery is hideous, most of its stagecraft pompous, hidebound, stodgy. In Europe, opera is everywhere sung in the language of the land, whereas the Met's official tongue is Anything-but-English. Next week the Metropolitan will open its season with some hurdy-Verdi in Italian (Un Ballo in Maschera), a new sponsor for its Saturday broadcasts (Texas Co.), its annual promise of more oomph. Meanwhile last week some other U. S. operas delivered the oomph.
> In Philadelphia's Academy of Music, the young, hard-working Philadelphia Opera Company...