Faces to Watch in ’96 :...

The masses are agog about the three tenors. But the aficionados are talking about the two mezzo-sopranos. First there was Cecilia Bartoli, everybody’s Italian darling. Now there is Jennifer Larmore, 36, of Atlanta, who makes her Music Center Opera debut Jan. 17 in “L’Italiana in Algeri.”

Rossini’s comedy hasn’t been performed here since 1966, when it served as a vehicle for one of Larmore’s idols: Marilyn Horne. Although Larmore’s dark, wide-ranging, unusually flexible voice has been heard in most of Europe’s great houses since 1986, her U.S. career is just beginning. The Met has claimed her, and there’s a Carmen in her future. “I’m a dramatic animal,” she says.

She remains a simple Southern girl at heart. “I need my boiled peanuts,” she says. “If I ever try to act the diva, my mama will take me down a peg so fast it’ll make your head spin.”