(Photo: Arve Dinda)
BY JAY NORDLINGER [NY Sun, 4 October 2007]

Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" has a large cast, but the most important performer of all is the conductor: He's the one who drives, controls, and shapes the opera. He is the spirit on which the opera depends (if you leave out Mozart and his librettist, Da Ponte). And in the pit of the Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday night was Philippe Jordan.