Show notes:

Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello

Aida, Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville were featured in the 1952 season

Parsons references Samson et Delilah with Claramae Turner & Kurt Baum

Parsons tells a legend involving Kurt Baum in a Metropolitan Opera production of Il Trovatore

Parsons references Act II of Tosca (“Quanto?”)

Fausto Cleva was the conductor of Cincinnati Summer Opera for 29 years at the Zoo

Lucia di Lammermoor was performed in Cincinnati Opera’s 1954 season

Parsons mentions The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti

Alms Hotel is a historic Cincinnati hotel (and now a residential apartment building)

Parsons mentions the Vienna State Opera Ballet performing Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin with the Cincinnati Symphony during the Opera’s season at the Cincinnati Zoo

Sherrill Milnes, baritone

The tenor Parsons criticizes is named Eddy Ruhl

Sea Thorn by Henry Humphreys is based on the story of Phaedra

Parson quotes a section from George Santayana’s A Sense of Beauty

Nell Rankin, mezzo-soprano

Anthony Stivenelo provided costumes for many Opera productions in the Zoo days

The Magic Flute at the Zoo featured sets from Indiana University

L'amore dei tre re ("The Love of the Three Kings") is an opera by Italo Montemezzi

Parsons’ recommended operas:

Best opera to start: Carmen

Best opera for its simplicity: Madama Butterfly

Best opera to portray everyday life: La Bohème

Parsons is currently rereading the complete works of T.S. Eliot

Parsons enjoys watching the National Geographic, SyFy and Food Network channels

Parsons enjoys Thanksgiving at The Golden Lamb in Lebanon, OH

Cleo Laine’s recording of “Send in the Clowns”

Parsons enjoyed learning Gregorian chant at CCM (University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music)