Rachel Waiters

There is a nice feature article about our Cinderella/Cenerentola in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. One of the jobs of a mid sized company is to try to identify and nurture new talent. Rachel is one of the most important young artists to come out of our young artists group.

Go Memphis Tigers

Here in Memphis, even folks like myself who are indifferent to basketball are cheering for the Memphis Tiger basketball team in the NCAA final four.

We contemplated moving our start time on saturday evening from 7:30 to 8:00 pm in order to accommodate the game, which starts a little after 5:00, but this seemed like it might wreak some havoc with families who had decided to bring young children to the opera.

Strange Musical Instrument

Our principal percussionist, John Sprott, fashioned these coconuts in order to approximate the sound of horses hooves for a section of CINDERELLA.

Cinderella's Shoe

Switching from matching bracelets (original opera) to the glass slipper has been challenging. You can't really just yank it out of your pocket. It is a small, but imposing presence onstage, a kind of elephant in the room that demands attention.

Cenerentola Costumes

Our wicked step sisters (Clorinda and Tisbe) are shown here in costume fittings. Cenerentola behind Clorinda in the dress with the pink trim.

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.