By KATHRYN SHATTUCK [NY Times, 29 January 2006]

They agreed on one thing: not just any nose would do.

What they - Francesca Zambello, the director of Franco Alfano's "Cyrano de Bergerac," now at the Met; Victor Callegari, head of the Met's makeup department; Anita Yavitch, the production's costume designer; and especially Plácido Domingo, its star - didn't want was the nose José Ferrer made famous in the 1950 film "Cyrano de Bergerac." That schnoz resembled a bratwurst jutting from his face. Or the proboscis Steve Martin wore in the 1987 film "Roxanne," its trajectory like a five-mile run on a bunny slope. Or the Academy Award-nominated honker Gérard Depardieu wore in the 1990 French adaptation, though frankly that wasn't much of a stretch.