The night after we got home from the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in January&mdash;see the report in this issue&mdash;my dear companion and I attended a performance of <I>Madama Butterfly</I> at San Francisco's beautifully refurbished War Memorial Opera House. It was a Tuesday evening, traditionally a big event for the Opera's benefactors. From our box seats, we had an excellent view of a production musically sumptuous and visually austere&mdash;and of a sea of gray and balding heads.

The night after we got home from the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in January—see the report in this issue—my dear companion and I attended a performance of Madama Butterfly at San Francisco's beautifully refurbished War Memorial Opera House. It was a Tuesday evening, traditionally a big event for the Opera's benefactors. From our box seats, we had an excellent view of a production musically sumptuous and visually austere—and of a sea of gray and balding heads.

The Grateful Dead were the most enduring and most worshipped of all the rock groups who originated in the San Francisco scene of the 1960s. The Dead spawned Deadheads, a global family of loyal followers, who lived for the communal high of Dead concerts, where recording by fans was encouraged by the band and its management. Deadheads continue to share recordings of those concerts through a vast network, including several websites. Until recently, at least two of the sites had been providing MP3 transmissions at no charge.

We posted an <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10415/">update</A&gt; on Peter Belt and his activities earlier in the month, but the saga began many moons ago. If you're curious about where it all began, or just need to know more, then J. Gordon Holt's "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/110/">L'Affaire Belt</A>" is for you. Stranger than fiction? Guaranteed.

Toronto-based Lenbrook Group announced earlier this month that it had acquired NAD Electronics from AudioNord International, a Scandinavian organization that has owned the brand for most of this decade. The deal is expected to close next week, on May 3. Lenbrook will take over NAD's worldwide marketing and distributorship, but AudioNord will continue to market the brand in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Scandinavia. Other joint marketing ventures will follow, according to Lenbrook's public relations agent.

Every week we get an e-mail or two from online readers begging for a state-of-the-art set of searchable weblinks on the <I>Stereophile</I> website. Starting this week, your e-prayers have been answered. The <I>Stereophile</I> website now sports one of the Internet's most comprehensive set of qualified audio and video links---as of last count, they number more than 2500. The database is searchable in a variety of ways, and also groups similar categories.

Last Month, music labels, distributors, and retailers met in Las Vegas for the 41st annual <A HREF="http://www.narm.com">National Association of Recording Merchandisers</A> convention to wrestle with several new issues wrought by the digital age. NARM Chairperson Rachelle Friedman set the tone for the event when she stated in the keynote address that "for the music industry, the 21st century and the impact of the Internet have already thrust themselves upon us."

<B>JOHN TAVENER: <I>Eternity's Sunrise</I></B><BR> With: <I>Song of the Angel</I>, <I>Petra: A Ritual Dream</I>, <I>Sappho: Lyrical Fragments</I>, <I>Funeral Canticle</I><BR> Patricia Rozario, Julia Gooding, sopranos; George Mosley, baritone; Andrew Manze, violin; Choir & Orchestra of the Academy of Ancient Music, Paul Goodwin<BR>Harmonia Mundi HMU 907231 (CD). 1998. Robina Young, prod.; Mike Hatch, eng. DDD. TT: 65:03<BR> Performance <B>****</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>