As if the season were not glamorous enough, it’s already time for “The Second Annual F. Paul Driscoll Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence,” or, as some insist on calling the prize, “The Opera News Awards.” (No zing, no zazz, no punch…) Anyway, the lucky honorees this year are “Wagnerian tenor Ben Heppner, longtime Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine, bass René Pape, retired soprano and currently active director Renata Scotto, and dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt.” The handing out of statuettes will take place in the ballroom of the Hotel Pierre in New York City on Sunday, January 28, 2007. (via Playbill Arts)