Richard Tucker, the Metropolitan Opera's great tenor, marched to the front of the stage, fixed his audience with a sour look, and let forth a flood of sound:
It was just a gay adventure,
That was all it meant to you:
Just a game, a stray adventure . . .
Just a fling without emotion,
Just another rendezvous.
The rendezvous, as it happened, was one of the most improbable in recent Met history: back to the stage after a grateful absence of 32 years had come the glass-beaded old operetta known as Martha, or The Fair...