The Met is one of the world's leading opera houses, and it's easy to see why. While top tickets prices soar to new heights on an annual basis, Vienna and Milan aren't getting any cheaper either. Now that benefactor Alberto Vilar is en route to the slammer and ChevronTexaco stopped funding Saturday broadcasts, the Met will have to get more creative in fundraising, as productions cost more and more to mount. That means less innovative productions (such as Busoni's "Dr. Faust" and Prokoview's "The Gambler") and more standard rep (such as Verdi). I do like the surtitles; although they can be annoying at times, they are certainly less annoying than patrons who still insist on bringing those monstrously annoying cough drops in cellophane wrappers.

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