CHANGING FACES.

Killer women abound in the final month of the Met's 2000-01 season: Dalila, Abigaille, Azucena jump to mind. Others are perplexing: Emilia Marty in The Makropulos Case, for example. But there are three who are not merely dangerous or perplexing. Kundry, Zerbinetta and Lulu are unique, and listeners to the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera broadcasts will meet these characters on successive Saturdays. In this issue of OPERA NEWS, we focus on two of them, Kundry and Zerbinetta. In "Rose of Hell" (p. 24), critic-translator David J. Baker dissects the astonishing female who dominates Wagner's last opera. Kundry lacks most of the assets expected in an opera heroine. True, she is beautiful, but she is mostly bad; carnally speaking, she's a walking argument for abstinence. But, as Baker notes, by the time he got around to creating Kundry, Wagner was sufficiently masterful to put qualities into one character that, in his earlier years, he would have parceled out between two. Elsa and Ortrud, Elisabeth and Venus are not so interesting as Kundry, because they are not so complete. Wagner, Baker says, took care to round out Kundry's "character with two basic positive traits, remorse and intelligence."

Zerbinetta is perhaps not so multifaceted as Kundry, but she is still a rare bird: an intelligent coloratura with a bent for self-mockery. In "Trill-seeker" (p. 38), Paul Thomason analyzes her nearly impossible aria, "Grossmachtige Prinzessin," and reveals the psychological shrewdness with which Strauss created Zerbinetta. He also offers an interesting comparison of the two versions of this aria and ends up preferring the original, even more difficult one, from the 1912 production. In "Femme du Monde," Brian Kellow profiles Natalie Dessay, who performs Zerbinetta in this month's run of Ariadne auf Naxos. As he makes dear, Dessay is not only a coloratura who can think, but one who can act as well: he credits her with "blazing theatrical instincts." It is grand to welcome her back.

Controversy ought to be part of daily life in a culture center, so it's rather satisfying to have two warm issues simmering away here at Lincoln Center. The first is ...