Music: Lady with a Future I

The Metropolitan Opera was putting on its first matinee of the season for high-school students—and, incidentally, giving promising 23-year-old Fiorenza Quartararo a chance to rehearse Carmen with the orchestra. No critics were expected. But the New York Times's Howard Taubman dropped in. He came away singing the praises, not of Rise Stevens' Carmen, but of Fiorenza's Micaela. Wrote he: "Astonishing assurance . . . true lyric quality . . . affecting simplicity. . . . Miss Quartararo, who is also good to look at, seems to have what it takes. . . . She may be the find of the season."

Miss...