HAVE you recovered from that news yet? Well then, hear this. Sean O'Casey's expressionist, anti war play, The Silver Tassie, is going to be turned into an opera by the National Opera Company in England. The architects of the adaptation are both English, composer Mark Anthony Turnage and librettist Amanda Holden, who, when she isn't performing, is a very fine and prolific translator of libretti.

Writing has already begun and this innovative and intriguing prospect should be ready for the stage by 1999.