Music: Time Will Decide

In San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House last week, the Ford Foundation got the first dividend on its $950,000 grant to U.S. composers for 18 new operas: the premiére of Norman Dello Joio's Blood Moon. Judged by critical response, Blood Moon was a bad bargain. "It does not send you out singing," complained the Chronicle's Alfred Frankenstein. The Examiner's Alexander Fried was more biting. Blood Moon, said he, hovered "between an ambitious grand opera manner and light-opera clichés."

Composer Dello Joio, at least, seemed unconcerned. He is convinced that his frankly romantic music (The Ruby, The Triumph of St. Joan) has...

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