NAMES IN THE NEWS : Opera Not for Casino Crowd

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Actor Paul Sorvino is turning again to singing, but the acclaimed opera singer says he knows better than to try to soothe the savage beast of gamblers with an aria.

“I think people who are losing $20,000 are not going to want to hear it,” he said. Instead, Sorvino will be belting out Broadway tunes, a few Neopolitan songs and some standards this weekend at the Showboat Hotel & Casino.

His singing work in the past has been sporadic. He recorded the cast album to the Broadway shows “Carmelina” and “The Bakers Wife,” 13 years ago and gave a concert at New York City’s Town Hall in the mid-1980s.

His acting roles include the bigoted Southern cop in the television mini-series “Chiefs.” He plays gangster Lips Manlis in the Warren Beatty film “Dick Tracy,” which is due for release in a few months; a Mafia don opposite Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorcese’s “Good Paul Fellas,” and a renegade CIA agent in “DMZ.”