The voices of the future.(Viewpoint)

Metropolitan Opera broadcast audiences first heard the singular voice of countertenor David Daniels in April 1999, when his ardent Sesto--in tandem with the majestic Cornelia of Stephanie Blythe--kicked Handel's Giulio Cesare into high gear with "Son nata a lagrimar," a duet of farewell that peeled the paint off the walls at the end of Act I.

A lot has happened in the five years since Daniels last sang in a Met broadcast. Daniels, who returns to the Met this month as Bertarido in the company's new blue-chip-cast Rodelinda, has become an authentic opera star, a status once beyond reach for countertenors, with SRO engagements throughout the U.S. and in Europe. The New York public's taste for the operas of Handel has continued to grow since that Cesare broadcast; Rodelinda is one of the current season's hottest tickets. But the future of the Metropolitan Opera Saturday-afternoon radio broadcasts, which seemed relatively secure in 1999, is less certain now. It seems unthinkable that a cultural institution that brought fabulous music to millions of listeners for three generations could ever slip away from us. With the aid of grants from private foundations, the Met has secured these broadcasts for the current season. An insert opposite page 32 of this issue of OPERA NEWS explains how you can join the Met's ambitious "Save the Broadcasts" campaign and make sure that these programs will be there for the listeners--and the voices--of the future.

This season marks the debut of Margaret Juntwait as host of the Met broadcasts, making hers just the third voice to serve as a regular announcer for these programs since 1940, following in the classy footsteps of Peter Allen and his predecessor, Milton Cross. Juntwait is a woman of charm, wit and intelligence, long admired by her radio listeners here in New York, on WNYC. One can wish her--and the Met--no ...