MUSIC

Hot tickets in Europe right now are for trains to Brussels. The Brussels Opera House is drawing crowds from all over Europe with its recent renovation and inexpensive tickets, reports Reuters, which calls the house the rising young star on the European opera scene. The recently renovated house--better known as the Monnaie--offers performances at about half the going rate for productions in other European capitals, and, says the news service, the quality matches better-known opera houses in Milan, Paris and London. The turnaround in the Monnaie’s fortunes are being credited to the arrival in 1981 of director Gerard Mortier. One innovation: a $350 season subscription for Paris operagoers that includes tickets to Brussels on the “Trans Europe Opera Express.”