September 10, 1998

Royal Opera chaiman, Sir Colin Southgate, says financially troubled Royal Opera House, London, will close for almost year, canceling all opera and most ballet performances until Dec 1999 to save money and put its affairs in order; plans to cut staff and offer cheaper tickets; says opera house, currently closed for $350 million refurbishment, has $21 million deficit; warns of mass layoffs if remaining workers refuse to renegotiate contracts; says Royal Ballet will go ahead with April Asian tour and July performances in London if labor accord is reached by Oct 26; British Government, which heavily subsidizes Royal Opera, hails plan (M)

Computers and peripherals manufacturers try to separate themselves from competitors and gain marketing advantage by citing benchmark results, ostensibly objective measures of performance, such as processor speed, but experts say these scores are useful in only limited way when applied to consumer computers; table (M)

News analysis: Pres Clinton spends day struggling to contain his most immediate political problem: defecting Democrats; for all his appeals, signs are not reassuring; there is growing sense in White House and among Democrats in Congress that party may not have time to recover, at least before the election; publicly, some Democrats try to sound upbeat as Kenneth W Starr's report arrives; privately, Democratic leadership aide in Congress sees 40 percent chance that Clinton will be impeached, but he also notes that Clinton has incredible ability to rebound; Sen Tom Daschle, minority leader, has spent last few days begging Democratic senators not to stand up on Senate floor and castigate Clinton; he has had little success; some Democrats who have not spoken out say they want first to read Starr's report; even that may be troubling sign for Clinton, because Democrats are no longer automatically issuing partisan attacks on Starr, as they did for months; photo (M)

Article in series entitled The 1998 Campaign examines campaign of Geraldine A Ferraro for Democratic Senate nomination; Ferraro's record as Congresswoman discussed; photo (M)

New York Yankees win American League Eastern Division championship; defeat Boston Red Sox, 7-5; photo (M)