`Opera idiot' Sam Waterston to host Opera News awards.(Main)

Emotionally, opera is "a direct whammy," "Law & Order" star Sam Waterston says as he prepares to co-host the first Opera News magazine awards.

The awards, to be presented today, go to three Americans - mezzo-sopranos Susan Graham and Dolora Zajick, and conductor James Conlon - plus Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and French soprano Regine Crespin .

Waterston saw his first as a high school student in Boston - the

Metropolitan Opera performing Richard Strauss' …