What was going on when I was born?

Film, as an inherently contemporary medium, might appear far removed from the stately anachronisms of opera. But a surprising number of present-day film directors seem to have become actively involved with opera, to the point of benign obsession. The two forms are not so disjunct as one might at first imagine. Both combine the arts in the synthesizing fashion favored by Western culture since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. Most films sublimate the music to a greater extent than in traditional opera. But the basic notion of a combination of the arts, all working in the service of a higher dramatic purpose, remains common to both. Right now in New York, examples of the film world's new fascination for opera are everywhere apparent -from the critical and popular success of Franco Zeffirelli's ''Traviata'' and Hans Jurgen Syberberg's ''Parsifal'' to Werner Herzog's ''Fitzcarraldo'' and Jean-Jacques Beinix's ''Diva'' to Public Television's offering of Patrice Chereau's Bayreuth ''Ring of the Nibelung'' to the nearweekly ''Live from the Met'' and ''Live from Lincoln Center'' operatic telecasts.

STEPPING out of the sales office at Beaver Creek, a resort communityi n the Rocky Mountains 110 miles west of Denver, Abraham Shames, who h ad been inquiring about buying a condominium, looked dazed. The bright Colorado sun can be disorienting, but there was a better explanation for his confusion. Mr. Shames, from Westbury, L.I., had just been told that condominium prices in Beaver Creek typically start at about $500,000. Undeveloped lots of less than one acre cost between $600,000 and $800,000. ''I'm shocked,'' Mr. Shames said. ''I've been in the real estate business 30 years in New York and I never heard of such a thing. Why so much money for a piece of a mountain?''

WASHINGTON IN the chess play of arms negotiations, Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov tried last week to one-up President Reagan by offering to limit not only nuclear missiles and bombers in the European theater but also the number of warheads. Washington welcomed the new move because it considers the warheads the most vital element of the arms race to bring under control. President Reagan called it ''encouraging.'' He pledged to explore Soviet thinking further in the next round of talks starting in Geneva on May 17, for other passages of Mr. Andropov's speech left considerable confusion over the numbers he had in mind.

The Islanders, their regular season sometimes good, occasionally bad and often indifferent, rolled into their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup final tonight with an impressive 8-4 victory over the Boston Bruins before a crowd of 15,317 at Nassau Coliseum. Mike Bossy scored four goals, three of them in a four-goal second period to help the three-time defending Stanley Cup champions win the the Prince of Wales Conference final playoff, four games to two. ''Someone in Boston was screaming the other day that we didn't deserve to be here,'' said Bossy. ''They said we had a lousy regular season, and that's exactly how everyone saw it - lousy. But I don't think it was that bad, although it could have been a lot better.''

WASHINGTON THE headlines have shrunk and the whirlwind of activity has subsided to a steady breeze, but Representative James J.Florio and his staff continue to look into the workings of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. The Pine Hill Democrat is a member of two of the half-dozen Congressional committees still seeking answers to some of the questions that arose last October after the House Commerce and Energy Investigations Subcommittee began looking into the handling of the $1.6 billion toxic-waste cleanup fund - the Superfund. Basically, four questions are under investigation: - Was there political manipulation of the toxic-waste cleanup program? - Was there conflict of interest and perjury involving high E.P.A. officials?

For years, Bernard J. Rosenshein, a New Rochelle, N.Y., developer who specializes in shopping centers, drove past the huge Reynolds Aluminum plant at 47 Longbrook Avenue in Stratford, Conn., and wondered how he could acquire the property. He believed it was was ideal for commercial redevelopment because of its proximity to growing residential communities in Fairfield County.

President Hafez al-Assad of Syria today appeared to rebuff efforts by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to win Syria's consent for an early withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon along with those of Israel. After meeting with Syrian officials in Damascus, Mr. Shultz flew here for talks on the accord with Saudi leaders, capping a full day of meetings in three Arab capitals. Before going to Damascus, Mr. Shultz met with King Hussein and other Jordanian officials Friday and today in Amman, where he got an endorsement of the accord from the King. The endorsement had been expected; the King has said withdrawal from Lebanon by Israel would be a factor in his ultimate decision on taking part in any negotiations with Israel. Meets With King Fahd Mr. Shultz met here tonight with King Fahd and Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister. At the airport, Prince Saud was asked for the Saudi view of the Israeli-Lebanese accord. The Prince said that while he was waiting to hear details of the accord from Mr. Shultz, ''we hear'' a breakthrough had been achieved.

ACCUSATIONS fly between continents, carried in the newsprint of m any languages. International figures hiss at one another in public a nd political cartoonists gleefully parody everyone involved. In this particular tempest, however, the key characters represent neither governments nor multinational corporations. The key characters are sportsmen - the administrators who control the world's most popular sport. At issue is which nation will be chosen to hold the 1986 World Cup finals in football - or as Americans call it, soccer. Mexico, which staged the 1970 World Cup, is heavily favored. The United States and Canada, the only other candidates, believe that is unfair. The final decision is to be made May 20 in Stockholm, by the 21-man executive committee of the Federation Internationale de Football Association, soccer's world governing body.

FEW decisions connected with the selling of a home cause more a nxiety and uncertainty than the setting of an asking price. Aim too h igh, brokers and appraisers warn, and you may price yourself out of t he market. If you set the price too low and make a quick sale, you m ay be left with a nagging suspicion that you could have obtained t housands of dollars more. What, then, is the most effective way of arriving at an asking price that will yield the best results within the shortest time? Careful market analysis is the key, say real estate professionals. Unfortunately, they add, when it comes to selling a home, even the most sophisticated owners tend to be emotional rather than objective.

IT is quiet in Buffalo. No shoppers to speak of, no noon-hour rush to lunch, no bursts of traffic accelerating from stoplights, no movement on the Erie Canal, the artery that turned Buffalo from just another town to a thriving port. Buffalo is a fading steel city, a fading flour-milling city, a fading automobile-rubber-chemicalsbuilding supplies-machinery city. At its periphery stand dormant industrial smokestacks and the tall, stuck-together columns of the H-O Oats grain elevator, vacant and crumbling. Along a two-mile stretch of Route 5 West into the lakeside city of Lackawanna, loom the soot-black facilities of the Bethlehem Steel Company where more than 20,000 people once worked, but which will only employ 1,300 by the end of the year. Buffalo today has plenty of roads, homes, sewers, schools and electrical power to accommodate the 580,000 people who lived there in 1950. But there are 360,000 people in Buffalo now, and many don't have work, which is why it's so quiet.

THE General Assembly acted last month to limit the future cost to consumers of the Millstone 3 nuclear plant, now almost 80 percent completed in Waterford. But factors largely beyond the lawmakers' control - falling oil prices and past inflation - mean that the reactor's completion will raise the bills of most electric users in Connecticut sharply, despite the new law. The reactor, estimated to cost $400 million when it was planned in 1971, is now expected to cost $3.54 billion by the time it starts operation, scheduled for 1986. The new law, which has the approval of Governor O'Neill, decrees that should the cost rise above $3.54 billion, the excess would be paid by stockholders of the utility companies that own the reactor. The problem is that the estimated cost of Millstone 3 is so high that its output will be more expensive than electricity made from foreign oil, even if the current cost of oil doubles.

acre amusement and recreation park on Long Island Sound, is scheduled to open officially on Saturday for the start of its 56th year - one the county's budget refers to as a year of transition. After two years of operation by the Marriott Corporation, Playland Park is being run this year as an arm of the County's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department while officials consider long-term plans for managing the county-owned facility. Marriott, the hotel, restaurant and amusement park chain, pulled out at the end of last year, citing unfavorable financial opportunities. During its tenure, Playland experienced a sharp drop in public attendance and a precipitous rise in the county deficit. County Executive Andrew P. O'Rourke said last week that ''during this year sometime, I'm going to present the Board of Legislators with choices for next year'' on Playland's future management.