Operetta Superstar!

Yesterday I had to write a short bio for the program of an upcoming performance and I wanted to put some new stuff in it, so I checked on Amazon.com to see if the latest Ohio Light Opera CD had been released. I spent the last three summers singing with the Ohio Light Opera in Wooster, Ohio, and every year they have the classical label Albany Records come and record two of the shows for commercial release. One of the shows they recorded last summer was The Birdseller (Der Vogelhändler), in which I had a small part. I discovered that the recording has been released all right, and here's the cover:

Check me out - I'm on the cover, baby! In case you can't tell, I'm the one on the right in the crazy wig (not to be confused with Nick, the one on the left with the crazy wig). I only appear in one brief and bizarre scene where I sing a catchy duet with Nick and we have a scene of dialogue where we act like the Marx Brothers. Well, that's what we did in live performances at least. For the recording the engineer wanted us to have some kind of vaguely German/Russian accent, which a nice little curveball to throw at somebody seconds before they record.

I had a solo on another Ohio Light CD a few years ago and if you look it up on Amazon, it is listed like this:

Maytime by Sigmund Romberg, Steven Byess, Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, Alta Boover, and Brian Tanner

That's funny because once again I only sing on one track on the whole CD, and Alta Boover has a speaking part and doesn't sing at all. I don't know why I'm listed ahead of all big main leads (one theory - alphabetical by first name?) but it's kind of fun to be able to search for your own name on Amazon.com and have results come up that are actually you. I'm an operetta rockstar, baby!