Postwar European opera has shown fascinating diversity of subject matter. Trying to put new drama onto their old stages, composers and librettists have turned to Kafka's tales of man in the grip of faceless forces (Gottfried von Einem's The Trial); to religion (Francis Poulenc's The Dialogues of the Carmelites); to intellectual battles of the past (Paul Hindemith's The Harmony of the World, an opera about the astronomer Kepler). Last week two more noteworthy operas held the stage in East Berlin and Naples. Both are by veterans: Slovakian-born Composer Eugen Suchon, 49, and Italian...
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