MUSIC

Enrique Arturo Diemecke

Principal conductor, music director,

National Symphony Orchestra

of Mexico, 41

What he’s done: He’s been likened by the French to a young Bernstein. He’s been a huge dose of energy for Mexico’s oldest and most noted orchestra. He’s been a strong proponent of Mexican music and made several successful recordings of it. But Diemecke has also become Mexican music’s most persuasive export, juggling posts with orchestras in Flint, Mich.; Fort Worth; Auckland, New Zealand; and the Montepellier-Languedoc-Roussillon region of France.

Outlook for ‘99: Diemecke will bring his Mexican orchestra to the Southland for an exciting and unusual program of all Mexican music in April at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and UCLA’s Royce Hall. Of particular interest will be a performance of Silvestre Revueltas’ last ballet, “La Coronela.” Revueltas, a remarkable composer who combined folk music with a dazzling sense of rhythm and color, is on the verge of a major revival, taken up lately by several local orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Dwayne Croft

Baritone, appearing as the lead in L.A. Opera’s “Don Giovanni,” 37

What he’s done: A young singer, elegant of voice and handsome, Croft carefully came up through the ranks of the Metropolitan Opera during the ‘90s. He was noticed and became the Met’s Don Giovanni of choice, but no star until featured in a Met telecast of its celebrated production of Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd” last June.

Outlook for ‘99: He attracted attention this fall in the Met’s star-studded “Marriage of Figaro,” even with the likes of Cecilia Bartoli, Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel sharing the stage; and now Croft’s career has entered skyrocket mode. L.A. gets him in his most celebrated role after Billy Budd, that of the Don, in its Jonathan Miller production of Mozart’s great opera in April.

David Robertson

Music director of Ensemble InterContemporain, 40

What he’s done: Plucked out of obscurity, this young conductor from Santa Monica succeeded Pierre Boulez in 1992 as music director of the famed Parisian new music specialists Ensemble InterContemporain. In addition to continuing to carry that particular modernist flag, Robertson has also made a name in opera, both for new work (he led the world premiere of Berio’s “Outis” at La Scala last season) and the standards (including “Carmen” at the Met this fall).

Outlook for ‘99: The prodigal returns. Although he was guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony last season, Robertson finally comes home when he brings the Ensemble InterContemporain to UCLA’s Royce Hall in April. Although the program has not yet been announced, it is sure to feature some of the French spectral composers that the ensemble champions (and performs like nobody’s business)--complicated music, but containing extraordinary, shimmering timbres that startle and amaze the ear.