July 28, 1985

The other evening I had a nightmare. I dreamed I was present at the creation of a new form of theater that was fated to replace opera, plays, films and all other forms of drama. In my semi-conscious state I felt something like the excitement that must have stirred the Florentine band of connoisseurs known as the Camerata when, around the year 1600, they brought into being the art we now know as opera. The thought flashed across my mind, like a subtitle, that opera and other categories of music drama would never again be the same. I had been granted a vision of a wondrous future in which all art would be processed in highly condensed form, like uncut heroin, and served up to audiences in short, jolting injections.

''Let's not make this a struggle between the Speaker and the President,'' Representative William H. Gray 3d, the Pennsylvania Democrat who is chairman of the House Budget Committee, said last week. ''That's ludicrous.'' But as President Reagan went off to Camp David after his first week back in the White House following cancer surgery, House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. sat in his office calling for Mr. Reagan's approval on ''even part'' of a sweeping new Senate plan for breaking the deficit-reduction impasse before taking any action. At the White House, Presidential spokeman Larry Speakes said Mr. Reagan would not comment on the specifics until the House responded and there was ''some sort of jelling on the Hill.''

BEFORE this summer, Richard Virgilio's artistry could be seen throughout the East Side of Bridgeport - spray-painted on walls amid a growing clutter of graffiti. Now, however, 14-year-old Richard is enrolled in a city-sponsored art program, studying drawing and painting techniques and visiting art collections. He still paints on walls - but now he is asked to. And instead of his name, he paints murals.

Senator Richard G. Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said today that he favored moving rapidly on legislation imposing economic sanctions against South Africa, and that he expected President Reagan to go along. Alluding to the two separate measures already voted on in the two houses of Congress, the Indiana Republican said through an aide: ''I want a bill, I want the House to agree to the Senate bill if the House wants something done quickly, and I think I can get the President to sign it.'' Senate Voted a Milder Version The Senate bill provides for a milder set of sanctions than the House bill does. House and Senate conferees are to meet Wednesday to iron out the differences.

THIRTY rapt first graders stared upward into an artificial evening sky as the planetarium and observatory director at Milford's Joseph A. Foran High School, Alan Sacharow, conducted a guided tour of the universe. Mr. Sacharow showed the children how Earth moves in relation to the Sun over the course of the seasons. He pointed out constellations, helped them find the North Star and told them about the moons of Jupiter. Then, near the end of his presentation, he projected a huge comet on to the dome of his planetarium. The comet, which was fainter than most of the stars but carried a spectacularly long tail, was a stand-in for Halley's comet, due to appear in the sky at summer's end and be visible to the ordinary viewer at year's end. ''I hope it looks like this,'' said Mr. Sacharow. A moment later the comet was gone, and the children found themselves caught in an artificial lightning storm, complete with raindrops splashing on the backs of their necks.