So Toronto’s opera lovers have a new palace. That’s nice and all, “but why should anyone who doesn’t know Parsifal from Pagliacci give two hoots? The answer, I think, has something to do with the importance and the wonder of cities… Cities stretch us, challenge us, broaden us. Cities, like magazines in their glory years, can pique our curiosity with an almost unlimited table of contents. And we become intrigued. About hockey, perhaps; about graffiti, perhaps; about commodities, perhaps; about Verdi.”