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Earlier this month, Adrienne Dugger a native of Atlanta, Georgia, stood in front of the curtain of the Metropolitan Opera with a huge grin on her face. It was not the compulsive smile of a diva who needs to wring a few more seconds of applause from her fans. Instead, it was the unbelieving smile of a woman who has come through danger intact. Dugger had stepped in on short notice to sing the lead in Puccini's "Turandot," one of the most taxing roles in the soprano repertory. At first, her voice sounded unsteady, especially in those cruelly exposed lines of "In questa reggia" with which she had to make her entrance. But she did not lack power, and her high C's cut thrillingly through the choral and orchestral climaxes of Act II. More than that, she acted the role with intelligence and passion, sharply telegraphing the rage of this proud princess who must surrender herself to a nameless foreigner. At one point, she shot the tenor Richard Margison a glance that might have given even Pavarotti the chills. She did all this while wearing cumbersome headgear that seemed to have upside-down bowling pins attached to it - part of the imperishable bric-a-brac of Franco Zeffirelli's 1987 production. A star is born? Hard to say. But the soprano gave flesh and blood to a character who is often little more than an onslaught of high notes.

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