Mark Swed says that the Metropolitan Opera’s embrace of change under new director Peter Gelb comes just in time to counteract the creeping conservatism sweeping much of the rest of America’s classical music scene. “The inclinations of big money normally are not adventurous, and the companies reflect that. But there is also a climate of fear of offending an increasingly puritanical public. Although political and moral issues are an essential part of much great opera, these are touchy, politically divided times, and few arts administrators seem willing to take chances.”