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Greek gods! Beasts and birds! Shenanigans! Peace offerings! Toga parties! Tonight’s performance by Las Vegas Philharmonic, titled “A World in Harmony,” was a veritable fun-house of images. I’ll try to limit my use of exclamation points.

The overture to The Thieving Magpie, by Gioacchino Rossini, can be described in one word: mischief. A maid is accused of stealing a silver spoon from her master’s house and is sentenced to death. Well, it is opera — but fortunately not tragic kind, in which half characters die and other half wish they could. Eventually culprit is found to be bird named in title, and woman is exonerated. No word on whether magpie lives, though.

Nothing focuses mind like an imminent deadline. The opera premiered in Milan on May 31, 1817, and Rossini later said, “I wrote overture to The Thieving Magpie on day of its opening, in theatre itself where I was imprisoned by director and under surveillance of four stage hands who were instructed to throw my original text through window, page by page, to copyists waiting below… In default of pages, they were ordered to throw me out of window.” Both overture and overall opera were big hits that night, and stage hands needed to manhandle only scene props.

Speaking of working under pressure, Sergei Prokofiev composed his Violin Concerto No. 2 just before returning to live in USSR in 1936. Stalin’s government wasn’t fond of avant-garde experimentation in music, and Russian composers weren’t fond of gulags. The concerto takes standard three-movement form, contained no wild cadenzas for soloist, and was “regarded by some as a musical olive branch to Soviet regime,” according to LV Phil Associate Conductor Dr. Richard McGee.

Award-winning guest violinist Chee-Yun took center stage for this concerto. Her arm pumped like a machine through rapid arpeggios in energetic first movement.

But at same time, you don't want to play a game where odds are greatly against you and you want a good chance of beating house on any given day. And you're willing to invest a reasonable amount of time learning to play properly.

Does this describe you? If so, you're not alone. About 99% of Blackjack players can very likely be described as "recreational" players. If you invest few hours it takes to lean Basic Strategy and good money management you will reduce casino's edge down to about a half percent. This is closest to playing even with house that you'll find in any game in casino.

However, for those of you for whom playing almost even with house is not good enough and you want edge, you must become a card counter.

It is an irrefutable fact that you can have an advantage over casino in Blackjack by counting cards. There are dozens of books this subject and card counting has been mathematically proven - literally thousands of times - as a method to more accurately determine odds that your next hand will have favorable cards.

The long-term advantage gained by card counting is about 1%, versus one half percent disadvantage from simply playing Basic Strategy.

So why isn't everyone a card counter and why are casino Blackjack profits at an all- time high and climbing?

Two reasons: * Casinos have made playing conditions very difficult for card counters. * Becoming an expert card counter requires hundreds of hours of practice and a monstrous bankroll. Even then, a small lapse in concentration at table will wipe out small advantage gained by counting.

This does not mean there aren't professional Blackjack counters who make a living playing Blackjack - there are.

However, to be able to make a full time living by counting cards, you'll need to be able to do following:

* Spend hundreds of hours, and play thousands of hands, to learn to count cards expertly, plus learn many subtle variations to hitting and standing that vary with count.