June 7, 1992

When the husband of Esther Alvarez left their home in the northern city of Hermosillo to look for work in the United States, she took her first job, as a janitor, and told her two young children to expect their father back soon. "He was going to go and make some money," Mrs. Alvarez said. "I don't know if he ever did."

A story is told about Frank Lloyd Wright that when the Mayor of Louisville once invited him to that city to lecture and was unable to meet the distinguished visitor himself, he sent two chauffeurs to the station; one happened to be the sheriff. When Wright, who always seemed to be in trouble with the law, saw a man in uniform coming along the platform, he got back on the train. They are still telling that story in Louisville, and it is a reminder that for much of his life America's greatest architect was constantly getting into scrapes and surviving on his wits and an overdraft. The view of Wright as prophet and ultimate authority is of fairly recent vintage.

"Step into the rage!" sing the members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, their syncopated melody jabbing menacingly against a funky bass line. Clearly, Patty Hearst -- at least as she appears in Anthony Davis's new opera, "Tania" -- is drawn irresistibly to the angry, passionate world that the S.L.A. embodies. And clearly, so is Mr. Davis. During rehearsals for "Tania," which opens on June 17 at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia, he breaks into a grin during this scene, bobbing his head, drumming his fingers to the rhythms. "That's going to be bad ," he says, laughing. Later, at dinner, that rage is still on his mind: "Step into the rage. I identify with that, because I've always had so much rage. Everyone has a Tania in their closet, this rage underneath, just waiting to come out. Every day I see stuff, just in terms of the acceptance of black composers in the music world, that could make me constantly angry, if I let it.

Many of them still don't get it. Although more than 200 major league ballplayers earn more than $1 million a year, and even the salaries for the once lowly paid football players have soared to an average of $500,000, athletes are still getting into financial trouble, often frittering away hundreds of thousands of dollars they will never again be able to amass.

Sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and dedicated by President John F. Kennedy, the enormous Penn South co-op housing project is marking its 30th anniversary today. Although much has changed since 1962, David Smith, the president of the Penn South board, believes that the project has remained true to its mission of providing affordable housing for people of modest means. "Penn South co-operators kept the faith by voting overwhelmingly in October 1986 to remain a limited-equity, nonprofit cooperative and reject the practice of unbridled greed by 'going private,' " Mr. Smith declared. While taking the project private might have meant large profits for owners on resales, it would also have considerably increased carrying charges.