The big economic slow-down/repression/whatever they're calling it has taken a toll in many areas, but especially in the arts. Here and elsewhere, arts groups are struggling to survive in the face of budget cutbacks and dwindling audiences. And as it happens, we've got two stories about this in today's paper -- one about a visiting artist's very nice act of kindness toward the N.C. Symphony; the other about two local opera companies that are merging their operations.
