To many of America's major music makers, festivals are the time for summer reruns. Most of this year's programming, at such places as Tanglewood, Saratoga and Ravinia, bears out the thesis: safe, familiar fare for the listener who prefers to leave his brains at home. It took the usually hidebound Metropolitan Opera to break the mold and demonstrate that a festival can also include the thinking man as well.
Last week the Met concluded a ten-day Verdi stand in Newport, R.I., that combined familiar pieces with a smorgasbord of the unfamiliar representing musicological...
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