I'd like to put in a plug for my favorite opera of the 20th Century, Karl-Birger Blomdahl's Aniara. The libretto (from a poem cycle by Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinsen) deals with a starship carrying hopeful survivors of Earth who are hoping to make a new life. Their ship is knocked off course by an asteroid and is doomed to wander in space. Its occupants, without hope, deal in various ways, some with mindless hedonism, others with equally mindless science. In many ways, it's a clear depiction of society at the end of the 20th Century, without hope and without direction. Musically, it's the closest I've ever come to a true "gesamtkunstwerk," Wagner's term for the art form that would embody all the arts. It starts with the ultimate tone row, the so- called "grossmutterakkord," and incorporates jazz and vocalise in the finest coloratura tradition (including a chilling moment at the end where, according to the stage direction, one of the characters, who is mute, "dances the disintegration of her soul"). Electronic music (of the 50s concret variety) is introduced by the ship's brain, which is represented by a sculpture that is a centerpiece of the work. Sadly, I don't know of any recent performances of the work. I first heard it in college on an old Columbia LP. Being a science fiction fan as well as a music lover, the cover and concept appealed to me. However, the music will grab almost anyone, IMHO. There was a CD issued a few years back with, I believe, Leif Siegerstam conducting, but I fear it's OOP. If a relatively unknown, currently unrecorded opera can be counted as one of the great operas of the century, this is it. I have a feeling it will be much better known when this same list is compiled in 100 years.