Sunday afternoon in the Opera House Boris Goldovsky will open the 1948 season of his New England Opera Company with "La Boheme." In three years, the work of this cherubic Russian expatriate in the once-stagnant field of American opera has brought deserved praise to him and a new lease for young singers, designers, and directors.

Goldovsky, who made a place on the concert and lecture platform long before his operas began to draw critical praise, holds one unshakable belief: that acting and direction are as vital to opera as singing and orchestration. In his summers at Tanglewood, he has trained not only a fine corps of performers but also a small group of directors, musicians, and production men.

Last year's production of "Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" proved to all who saw them the advantages of this new fluidity in opera. Mozart's "Idomoneo", produced at Tanglewood in 1947 for the first time on this continent, was a superb example of Goldovsky's ability to produce works considered impossible by most companies.

This winter's program will offer him a chance to expand even further: later offerings will be Rossini's "A Turk in Italy"--never done here before--and "Carmen," which Goldovsky considers a great opera in spite of the depredations of Rita Hayworth and every other woman who ever held a rose in her teeth.

The usually affable musician works up a fine contempt discussing the Metropolitan Opera Company, which he claims has horribly stunted the growth of American opera. His early Tanglewood work amazed the New York critics, who have since learned that an evening of opera need not be four hours of vocalizing by a group of overweight prima-donnas.

Goldovsky is a man with a big idea--an idea which he has conceived, developed, and brought to flower in less than a decade. He has done a great deal himself; but his real contribution cannot be weighed until his young actors reach maturity and the people who pay for music in this country realize that they must play ball with him to keep opera going.