From Susan Elliot, editor, Musical America Special Reports — We’ve all heard the countless visa “horror stories” about the  cancelled performance, the artist left at the airport, the clueless  official who hasn’t heard of the venue called the Metropolitan  Opera House. It’s as if the process of securing visas for foreign  artists to perform on these shores is overseen by Mr. Murphy  himself, carefully insuring his famous law that “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Seeking a way to defeat him, we have gathered the experts and devoted an entire issue to stories to inform and enlighten about the subject of U.S. visas for visiting artists.