Music: New Opera in Manhattan

When England's famed Composer William Walton sat down five years ago to write his first opera, he determined to make it a "singers' opera." By that he meant that he would write as melodiously as possible, use his ex-choirboy's knowledge of the voice to make things easy for the singers ("They've had a rather poor time of it for the last 30 years"). He also decided to swallow any fears he might have about sounding like Verdi or Puccini. Last week, ten months after the London première, the New York City Opera staged its version of Troilus and Cressida. It...