Met for the Masses

In its glossy new quarters, New York's Metropolitan Opera cannot satisfy the growing demand for tickets. The waiting list for season subscriptions numbers 7,000. This past season, the backlog of mail orders for individual tickets mounted to 5,000 by November, after which the Met accepted no more, and thousands of opera fans were turned away from the box office.

Now, the masses who have been left out will have their chance, for the Met will come out to them. This week the company announced plans to give concert versions of La Boheme, Madame Butterfly and Tosca in New York parks this summer--the first free public performances in its 82-year history. The series of nine performances will have an estimated potential audience of 400,000, more than half as many people as attend the Met's entire regular season.

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