Opera: A Sense of Adventure

As a boy in Vienna, Conductor Julius Rudel spent endless hours building miniature theaters and staging puppet operas—Salome in a shoe box, Parsifal in a packing crate. The training proved to be apt preparation for his job as director of the New York City Opera. For the past eight years, operating on a budget that would pass for carfare at the Metropolitan Opera, he has been nurturing his company in a glorified Manhattan shoe box called City Center. Last week, like slum kids transported to the country, Rudel and his 200-member troupe...