Cenerentola staging

David Edwards, our stage director, is shown here staging the chorus. In CINDERELLA, the chorus is made up of men only.

Preview week for Cenerentola

Our Assistant Artistic Director and Chorus Master, Stephen Carey, put together a series of performances this week in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Oxford and Corinth, Mississippi, and Jackson, Tennessee. Today's performance was in the little town of Wynne, Arkansas and it was billed as "Divas and Daffodils." It was held in a beautiful back yard.

At one point, the family cat, a very large and friendly Tom, decided to lie down right in front of our Cinderella, Rachel Waiters, while she sang "My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord."

The Easter Bunny also put in an appearance.

Cinderella or La Cenerentola

Memphis has a faux vintage trolley system which makes jolly loop downtown. We are using it to advertise our upcoming production of CINDERELLA (LA CENERENTOLA)

The Rossini opera doesn't actually have a shoe in it. Instead, matching bracelets are used to confirm Cindy's ID. However, in a nod to the Disney interpretation, we have put the glass slipper back into it.

Delta Capella

It did something it almost never does in Memphis--last night it snowed.

I've been helping out a very little bit with an extraordinarily talented group of musicians here--Delta Capella.

They are a group of male singers from very diverse backgrounds who sing a capella music that ranges from doowop to classical. It takes lots of hours of practice and a good ear. The group has a wonderful collaborative vibe. They have a concert coming up at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center.

Its an impressive art form, and worth checking out.

Your very own castle near Dallas

We went to see a fine production of PORGY AND BESS at the Dallas Opera this weekend and saw this monstrosity under construction in the neighborhood where our friends live.

We Don't Rent Pigs

The road from Memphis to Murray, Kentucky goes through the small cities of Milan (My-Lan), McKenzie, and Paris, Tennessee and then on up north to Murray which is just across the TN/KY border. On the highway north of Paris is a sign that says "We Don't Rent Pigs." I mentioned it at my audition class and one of the students recalled having seen it too.

Alas, I didn't get a photo of it, but I did get a shot of the welcome sign going into Paris with its very robust catfish... er poisson-chat.

Singing and Opera Murray State

Murray State is in Southwestern Kentucky. They have a harmonious voice faculty (somewhat unusual, that) and I heard some very good and well prepared student singers. The impressive facade is their old library and the tree with the shoes is a campus tradition.

Vienna Teng

A group of folks from the Chinese community gathered to celebrate and meet Vienna Teng.

She is immensely talented and has the real potential to be a major artist some day. She sang a couple of songs and talked about her career and move from computer science into music. One of the headliners at the Folk Alliance conference, she was very gracious and generous with her time. For me, it was great to meet some students who already knew about her.

Asian Americans are very prominent in many fields, but not in some of the most visible ones--film, pop music, national politics to name a few... It would be a cultural milestone if she can climb the heights of the pop music biz.

More Outreach with the Folk Alliance

Yesterday, songwriter and performer Marc Black, also from upstate New York, performed in a Memphis retirement community.

Marc has a very interesting project--"Stroke of Genius." Marc set to music the writings about the experience of a stroke victim.

Outreach with the Folk Alliance

The North American Folk Alliance is having its annual convention in Memphis this week. The Opera is helping them schedule outreach performances in the community. Today I took a songwriter from Woodstock New York, Tom Pacheco, to an assisted living community in Memphis. Initially I was a bit skeptical, what is this white New Yorker going to be able to say to retired African Americans from Memphis? He launched right in, singing a blues song he'd written and he won them over into laughter with a song about an old lady with her own marijuana garden. You can hear this song when you click on Tom's website.

My favorite song was one he did in the manner of Luke the Drifter--a recitation about hardened criminal who is made whole by a stray kitten.