Karen Stone is Dallas Opera’s new general director – but she’s largely unknown in American opera. Her career has been in Europe, in England, Germany and Austria. Most recently she’s been running the opera company in Graz. The opera there has a $30 million budget and produces long repertory seasons. Dallas – with a $10 million budget is much smaller. So why leave? “We have huge fixed costs [in Graz], because of the huge amount of employees in the technical department. And we are going through a phase with politicians who are trying to reduce the funding they give us. They want to semi-privatize us. But we don’t have the possibility of seeking funds outside. It’s incredibly dangerous for the future.