Search

NEW YORK likes to think of itself as being the classical music capital of the world. Yet every so often it falls off the flight path of certain eminent musicians. Cecilia Bartoli, Carlos Kleiber, Birgit Nilsson and Brigitte Fassbaender are just a few of the great artists who have skipped New York for long stretches. The same goes for the superb Nina Stemme, widely considered the world's reigning dramatic soprano. When the Swedish Ms. Stemme (pronounced (STEH-muh) made her Metropolitan Opera debut, as Senta in Wagner's ''Fliegende Hollander'' in 2000, Anthony Tommasini praised her ''cool, radiant and often penetrating sound'' in The New York Times and called her portrayal ''lustrous and winning.'' But she has logged a mere 11 New York appearances in all, having returned to the Met in 2010 for five performances of Strauss's ''Ariadne auf Naxos''. And she won't resurface there until the 2016-17 season, when she will star in both Strauss's ''Elektra'' and a new Willy Decker production of Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]