A scuffle at a Connecticut opera reveals the bleak future of the orchestra pit This August's production of Richard Wagner's four-opera Ring cycle in Hartford, Conn., has been postponed. Rather than hiring pit musicians, producer Charles M. Goldstein had intended to accompany the singers with sampled instrument sounds, played by a computer. Not a CD, not a synthesizer; the computer triggers the playback of individual notes (“samples”) originally recorded from real instruments. The reaction of professional musicians—and, of course, the musicians' union—was swift and furious. New York City's Local 802 president called it operatic karaoke. Hate mail poured in. In...