Recent performances of American Ballet Theater's production of Swan Lake featured a new hero and a new villain.

"It's grim stuff for a summer evening," said one operagoer on Saturday during the intermission of the first performance of Jonathan Miller's production of "Fidelio" at Glimmerglass Opera.

In the first performance this season of the Metropolitan Opera's production of "Barbiere" on Wednesday night, it looked at times as if all the elements were in place.

Their main social activity is rehearsing twice weekly and they present seven performances of their musical production over two weekends.

Both performances of Natalia Makarova's vibrant production of this late-19th-century classic were impressively danced.

To the Editor: I recently attended two performances of Robert Wilson's production of "Lohengrin" at the Metropolitan Opera.

The company closes its winter season with performances of Peter Martins's production of "The Sleeping Beauty."

Toying With Timbre The first performance of the Met's new production of the Verdi opera, late last month, was a highlight of the company's season.

Last fall she was a vocally refined Countess in several performances of the Met's new production of Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro."

But after the Salzburg concert I had been offered only a kind of 'trial', just one performance of someone else's production.