Music: The Halasz Tradition

Last week, having cast Director Laszlo Halasz adrift, the New York City Opera announced a spring season in the best Halasz tradition. In addition to eleven operas from current repertory, it promised productions of i) Alban Berg’s tragic opera, Wozzeck, which no U.S. audience has seen in 21 years, 2) a stage version of Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and 3) a new adaptation, by Marc Blitzstein, of Kurt Weill’s The Three-Penny Opera. Possible hitch: Halasz, who is still fighting his year-end dismissal (TIME, Dec. 31), contends that, under his last contract, none of last year’s repertory may be produced this year without Halasz on deck.