CLASSICAL NOTES. So it turned out that Erika Sunnegaardh came through in Fidelio last Saturday. Brava!

I heard most of Fidelio over the radio but attended two other operas at the Met recently. Both productions were uneven, but I enjoyed a number of the performances. In Luisa Miller on March 21, Irina Mishura sounded great as Federica, Eduardo Villa did well stepping in for Neil Shicoff after Act I, and Stephen West did a good job replacing Phillip Ens as Wurm (love that character name). The new production of Mazeppa veers into inanity, but the voices of Olga Guryakova as Maria and Larissa Diadkova as Lyubov were a joy on March 27.

Going back farther in time: On February 16 I enjoyed the Zankel Hall performance of the modern music ensemble Alarm Will Sound. It's been great to see the performance of modern music improve over the years. This creative program included John Cage's 0'00" (4'33" No. 2) and Variations III, in which the actions of the musicians were like "knee plays" sandwiched between more conventional works; the other featured composers were Frank Zappa, Bernard Woma, Wolfgang Rihm, Derek Bermel, Edgard Varèse, John Cale, and John Adams.

Moving back to this past Saturday: An informant tells me that NPR broadcast a startling April 1 item about plans for Carnegie Hall. I haven't been able to find it online yet; your assistance would be most welcome.