WHERE HE'S BEEN: Conducting Wagner at the Salzburg Festival, Tchaikovsky at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Verdi in Paris.

WHERE HE'S GOING: To the Bayreuth Festival to conduct Wagner's "Lohengrin"; to the Chicago Lyric Opera for a new production of Verdi's "Falstaff"; and back into the recording studio to complete Massenet's "Manon" with tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Angela Gheorghiu.

WHY HE DOES WHAT HE DOES: "The music itself is so beautiful. I've done a lot of Massenet lately, and he's tremendously theatrical. It's really gratifying to perform a composer who had such a sense of timing and of how things work onstage. "Manon" and "Werther" are very different. "Manon," although it has enormous pageantry, is transparent and light music, whereas "Werther" is almost frightening, very dark, with near-Wagnerian orchestration. Roberto Alagna is wonderful in both operas -- he's so good in the French stuff."

EQUITABLE WORKER: Pappano has found singers Alagna and Gheorghiu a pleasure to work with, despite what some of the press says: "Angela Gheorghiu is a fine Charlotte in "Werther," although she is a soprano and the role is usually sung by a mezzo-soprano. She has a dark hue to her voice, and it works. We're looking forward to more recordings with them, possibly of "Madama Butterfly," "Faust" (for which he'd be perfect), "Adriana Lecouvreur," and even "Carmen" way down the road. Roberto and Angela are calm these days, singing more, and they've organized their calendar. All musicians know it's the work that counts; we all have to work more and talk less."

MAJOR INFLUENCES: Great conductors of the past, like Arturo Toscanini, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and Victor de Sabata.

WHAT HE DOES WHEN HE'S NOT ON THE PODIUM: An avid reader, Pappano has recently been delving into a biography of Duke Ellington for the composer's centenary. A gifted accompanist, he often plays the piano for his own amusement: everything from jazz to Bernstein's "Candide."