Things we learned at Inside the Opera Studio last night

Tim Jones, Jason Hardy at the post-event reception with attendees.

1. Our cast for Cenerentola has a decidedly southern tilt to it, with seven of our ten panelists born and/or currently living south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Even our Russian Diva is learning English with a Texas twang in her current residency in Houston.

2. Michele Angelini (Don Ramiro) secretly dreams of being a Wagnerian tenor.

3. Maestro Waters in going through a, “Tristan phase.” (I think there may be a cure for that.)

4. Jason Hardy (Don Magnifico) can balance furniture on his face.

5. David Gately (Director) last directed an opera for Connecticut Opera, “before most on the panel were born.”

6. Michael Mayes (Dandini) is Texan, through and through; right down to his cowboy boots and oversized longhorn belt buckle.

7. Our two ugly step-sisters (La’Tarsha Long and Toby Newman) will only be ugly on the inside.

8. Timothy Jones (Alidoro) is a professor of voice and musicology, not of physics.

9. Maria Markina (Cenerentola) is thankful that this production is in Italian and not English, as English has too many different vowel sounds.

10. Café Louise has the best deserts; especially those little white chocolate cups filed with mousse and topped with a coffee bean –YUMMY!