Sentence:  But one wishes , when the appetite is whetted , as it <WSD>was</WSD> in the case of the all-too-brief excerpt from the Blomdahl opera , that further opportunity would be provided both for hearing the works in their entirety and for a closer analytical look at the sense and nature of the compositions . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)