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...