Music: Romp at the Met

"I have been asked by the management to say officially that I am the only performer who has ever been engaged by the Metropolitan Opera in spite of his voice." So writes Cyril Ritchard in a Met program note. At any rate, the Met hired him to stage and star in its new production of Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole, and Manager Rudolf Bing has rarely had a better idea. Actor Ritchard's singing may only be an educated guess ("My voice has four legitimate notes," he says, "the rest is just growl"), but he...