Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Genetic carriers

Constructor: David J. Kahn

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: DAS RHEINGOLD — circles spell out this first part of WAGNER's RING CYCLE, which apparently opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2010-11 season

Word of the Day: James LEVINE (13D: Met maestro James, longtime conductor of the 17-Across) —

James Lawrence Levine (pronounced /lɨˈvaɪn/; born June 23, 1943) is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of July 2009 he has conducted more than 2,456 Met performances. In 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. (wikipedia)

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As stunt puzzles go, those of David J. Kahn tend to rate pretty high with me. His competence matches his ambition, which is always nice. Today's puzzle is interesting. I'm not that thrilled with a few of the theme answers — I'm opera-ignorant, but don't most operas have SOPRANOs and BARITONES? and WALKÜRE seems an arbitrary and vicious foreign word, especially considering that it's part of the title of the second part of the RING CYCLE, when what's being ... honored? ... here is the first (see 17A and grid circles). But the puzzle is thematically dense the grid is reasonably interesting, so I enjoyed the solving experience. The ring (of circles) is more of an octagon than anything else, but I can still buy it as a ring, so no major foul there.

Theme answers:

17A: Musical work in four parts, with its first part opening the Met's 2010-11 season (RING CYCLE)
13D: Met maestro James, longtime conductor of the 17-Across (LEVINE)
11D: "Die ___" (second part of the 17-Across) (WALKÜRE)

35A: Attendee at a 17-Across (OPERA-GOER)
59A: Singing voices in the 17-Across (BARITONES)
39D: Singing voice in the 17-Across (SOPRANO)
44D: Composer of the 17-Across (WAGNER)

Aside from the WALKÜRE section, I found the puzzle pretty easy. Biggest issue was writing in (with certainty) HEM instead of SUM at 39A: Bottom line. That kept the SW from quickly as it might have. Wrote in BARITONES but then doubted it because I thought 60D: W.W. II site, briefly must be ETO (nope, IWO). I also had a spot of trouble in the SE based on not knowing who ELSTON Howard was (57: Yankee ___ Howard, 1963 A.L. M.V.P.). Last letter into the grid was the "S" in ELSTON (such a weird-looking name). Oh, I forgot—another sports name held me up: SVEN, in the middle of the grid (32A: ___ Kramer, 2010 Dutch Olympic gold medalist in speed skating). I probably watched him win, but that name just didn't stick.

Bullets:

5A: "The Usual Suspects" setting (JAIL) — Is this where Kevin Spacey was sitting the entire time he was narrating? I have largely forgotten that movie, and I don't have any particularly JAIL-y memories of it.
15A: Ireland's ___ Islands (ARAN) — good day to know your Celtic islands. IONA is a tiny island off the west coast of Scotland (23A: Hebrides isle) and the ARAN islands are a small island chain off the west coast of Ireland.
27A: With 6-Down, genetic carriers (NUCLEIC / ACIDS) — my limited science knowledge showed up today; got whole thing with just a few crosses in the first word.
65A: First company to successfully manufacture bubblegum (FLEER) — I'm guessing this is the same company that made baseball cards. . . wow, it appears they didn't go beyond the first sentence of the wikipedia entry to write this clue (word for word).
68A: Trueheart of the comics (TESS) — one of two ladies-of-pop-culture gimmes today; the other was TURNER (48D: Hurt's "Body Heat" co-star).
9D: Mudder's fodder (HAY) — There's all kinds of equestrian language I just don't know. "Mudder" is an example. Needed all the crosses here.