Chacun

He's a reasonably good fellow We care for him a lot When he ages he might mellow And then again, he might not.

So sings Soprano Regina Resnik on one of the year's more remarkable operatic LPs, Highlights from the Metropolitan Opera Gala Honoring Sir Rudolf Bing (DGG, $6.98). The "he" is, of course, Sir Rudolf, the Met's retiring general manager; the "we" refers to Miss Resnik, other Met stars and six conductors who performed their, his and perhaps everybody's favorite arias for 51 hours last April at Bing's formal farewell.

Save for the Resnik spoof (Chacun a Bing's Gout, set to music from Die Fledermaus), the extracts on this disk are all unadulterated--and sung with the special fervor displayed by opera singers when their peers and rivals are in the wings. Soprano Leontyne Price brings a chaste passion to Dove Sono from The Marriage of Figaro. Soprano Montserrat Caballe and Tenor Placido Domingo, turning to Manon Lescaut, ask each other Tu, tu amore? Tu?, and answer in the way every Puccini fan dreams of hearing but rarely does. Awesome is the word for Birgit Nilsson's portrayal of Salome's final 14 minutes on earth. As for the Act I love duet from Otello, Soprano Teresa Zylis-Gara sings with disciplined creaminess, but Tenor Franco Corelli, alas, gulps phrases and swallows words as if he were drowning in the music rather than singing it.

The LP is the first to be recorded on the Met's stage since RCA threw up its hands at high labor costs in 1959, and as such it may he a harbinger. With Columbia, Angel and London curtailing their classical recording sessions in the U.S., DGG is moving into the vacuum with all the muscle its considerable financial resources will permit. Among the bonuses this may yield to the opera buff: DGG is said to be negotiating to record the Met's new Carmen next September, with Marilyn Home in the title role and Leonard Bernstein conducting.

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