By JAY NORDLINGER [NY Sun 3 January 2006]

At Lincoln Center on New Year's Eve, there was opera at the opera - and opera at the Philharmonic. (Actually, there was operetta at the opera - "Die Fledermaus" - but let's not quibble.) Lorin Maazel, the Philharmonic's music director, led a program of Italian overtures, dances, intermezzi, and arias. And who was along to sing those arias? Why, Angela Gheorghiu, the world's most glamorous opera star.