'Opera Idiot' Sam Waterston to co-host opera awards By VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press Writer, 11/19/05 NEW YORK -- Emotionally, it's "a direct whammy." That's how "Law & Order" star Sam Waterston described the power of opera, before co-hosting the first Opera News magazine awards. The awards, to be presented Sunday at Manhattan's Pierre hotel, go to three Americans - mezzo-sopranos Susan Graham and Dolora Zajick, and conductor James Conlon - plus Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and French soprano Regine Crespin. Presenters include Broadway star Patti Lupone and playwright Terrence McNally. About his first encounter with opera as a teenager, the 65-year-old Waterston deadpanned: "For an opera idiot like myself, the first impression is that it expresses the size of the feelings in people's hearts. That can't be adequately done, except for these big guns of voices and a vast orchestra. When it comes to feelings, opera is a direct whammy." http://tinyurl.com/93n3v Janos Gereben www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]