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Overall I was very impressed with the production. Considering that it was a student summer workshop, and that it had no budget whatsoever, the production values were top notch.

I have to say that except for the lighting on the Prince and Cinderella in the forest scene, the lighting crew knew what they were doing. That one little bit was difficult because it seemed impossible for the two actors to find places where their faces weren't in shadow.

The set design was ingenious, very nicely done. I think I would have had fewer large pieces to move, but overall they gave the suggestion of the spaces the opera took place in without needing to resort to overly ostentatious set design.

Costuming was the one area that made me wince a little, but...again...when you're doing this kind of no-budget production, you have to hope that your people can bring in enough quality items to create the right picture on the stage. I know that the libretto has Princesses from several different countries named, but I still would have preferred to see a more consistent unity in the style and period of the costuming. Having the King in Medieval costuming, several others in Renaissance, a couple in Victorian, one girl in a kimono, and another in what looked like a Victorian dressing gown with Japanese geisha shoes on her feet really jarred me.

Also, I think that the girl who played the Fairy Godmother somehow managed to really upset the costumers. The outfit that they had her in was extremely unflattering to her. I thought that the color washed her out, the shiny material made her look heavier than she probably is, the design was ill-suited to her body shape and style, and I honestly felt that it had no coherence to the look of it at all.

The courtiers were well turned out, their costuming colorful, flattering, and character appropriate. The stepmother's dress worked, though there had been adjustments made to make it fit her, and the adjustments could have been camouflaged a bit better. The two stepsisters both had excellent costuming, and, of course, our friend, Matt, looked quite yummy. I admit, though, that I spent a couple of moments recognizing costuming pieces that I've seen him wear while performing at Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie. The King, despite the medieval style of the costume, was also nicely done. His costume appeared to be top quality and looked very well fitted, flattering him nicely. The Prince's outfit was very well done, with only one problem...a baggy butt. Other than that it was a good cut and color. Oh, and I would've made the pants a little longer so that they actually tucked into the boots rather than brushing the tops of them.

The voices in this production were well cast, of excellent quality overall, and all seemed to have a solid base of training which will allow them to build on the talent they displayed tonight. The young lady playing Cinderella was one of the two best voices out there. She had excellent pitch and clarity of tone, a very smooth transfer from chest to mid to head voices, no difficulty in filling the hall with her sound, and the ability to move from holding the focus as a soloist to blending both vocally and physically with the ensemble when the role called for it. She also had a very well developed sense of theatre, her acting coming naturally out of what she was singing and the blocking that she was doing. I didn't get that sense of overblown opera heroine from her, but I still got a decent picture of her emotions and state of mind. Well done.

Matt's voice has grown so much in the past year that I can't help practically bursting with pride in him when I hear him. I know I've had nothing to do with that improvement other than offering encouragement, but I'm proud to be counted among his friends. There's a richness in the lower and middle voices that, personally, I rank up there with the best. The upper register still needs some consistency work, but the passagio (the passage from one voice to another) that I heard today was faultless. If he keeps up his hard work, he's going to be a name in the opera scene someday. His acting was also very nicely done. One of the most animated figures on the stage. It was the little things that set him apart from a number of other cast members, details in his acting that gave him a three-dimensional character. Not to mention that he was the only one out there who could reverence decently.

The stepmother had a lovely voice, but I was a bit disappointed in her characterization. There was nothing there that really told me why this big man (Matt) was held in such a state of fear of this woman that he would allow his daughter, whom he loved more than anything, to be degraded on a daily basis. The stepdaughters were good, but I would have liked to have gotten a bit more projection out of them. They got lost in the shuffle a fair amount of the time. The one young lady made some very wise choices in terms of bigger, bolder, and stupider...which is what you need when you're playing that kind of character in opera. The Mimi makeup, the physicality, and little touches like having a bunch of grapes stuffed down her shift all pulled together to amuse the audience at the appropriate times. The other girl was a bit upstaged by all of this, though I don't think it seemed intentional. She just hadn't made the bold choices of the first sister, and as such, seemed to be less of a presence on the stage. I wish she HAD come up with something equivalent in its outrageousness, yet in a different vein. It would have been nice to see the differences serving as a foil for the first sister's physicality and Cinderella's simple sweetness.

The fairy godmother was a bit of a disappointment to me in the musical and acting areas. Lovely voice, but she desperately needed more support, and more consistency across her range. She had no problem hitting the coloratura-high notes, but her crispness in executing runs was not to the standard I tend to prefer. I was unsatisfied by the characterization as well. I don't know if the decisions were made by the director or the singer, but I would have handled the character in a completely different manner. She was trying to be light-footed and rather bouncy, attempting to give the impression that she was flitting here and there as she moved. Unfortunately, however, she did not manage to reach a level of comfort with this physicality that allowed her to make it look as effortless as it should have, especially since she was surrounded a large part of the time by young children who DID make it look that effortless. Personally, I would have dressed her in a much more flowing outfit, and made every motion of hers smooth and graceful, full of elegance and beauty. This would have provided a contrast not only with the other fairies, but with the stepmother, whose character movements were very brusque and choppy (as they should have been, it worked very well for her). I would have made the fairy godmother the serene center of the whirlwind of motion that was created by the children playing the fairies. (Also, the Glinda the Good hand motions are great once, decent twice, but when repeated ten times, the Director needs to tell her to find something else to do with her hands.)

The young lady playing Prince Charming appeared to be fairly young, and relatively inexperienced at playing "pants roles". She had a good start on the physicality required of such parts, remembering to make her movements more masculine in nature than she would normally do. However, she was not quite comfortable enough with it to make hand gestures that were not feminine. As she seemed to realize this, her hands remained solidly at her sides for most of her performance. This, combined with a lack of emotional expression on her face, made her a bit too wooden. I would have liked to have seen more difference between "I will never know love and it sends me into despair." and "You are my heavenly unknown and I will worship you forever." But the seeds seemed to be there, and hopefully she will grow into more expression in her performances.

The ensemble as a whole was fine, but had a rather large proportion of VERY young people in it to my eyes. However, that tends to happen with summer workshop type productions, so it wasn't a major shock to the system. The ensemble's best moment, to me, ironically came when they were not onstage. There was a short few measures when the ensemble was singing a very haunting harmony offstage, before coming in to the magic forest scene. Very lovely, excellent blend, beautiful emotion. Nice, nice, nice! :)

I know that it seems like I didn't like it, and that I've picked a lot of nits, but I have to say that I DID enjoy it, and it was a very well done production. Well worth the $6 ticket price, and the drive to Denton.