La Cieca was franky overwhelmed by both the volume and the quality of the “Season Brochure” contest entries, so she’s decided to ask you, her cher public, to help decide the winner. In this and four other posts, she will present five finalists. Later today, she will post a ballot so you, the cher public, may vote on your #1 favorite.

Orestes writes:

The 1954 season for Selma Grand Opera promises an eclectic mix of patriotic and unfortunate works, as well as a gala funeral featuring the drunk personality Tallulah Bankhead as special queen.

The wicked classic, Giuseppe Verdi’s La putana d’Atlanta boasts a new production directed by Margaret Mitchell, with costumes by Ted Turner. This arrogant staging updates the action to Paris in the early part of the 15th century. Soprano Renata Tebaldi stars as Beulah, a virginal mule who for most of the opera is disguised as a mysterious cowboy. Renata Tebaldi is perhaps best known from TV’s Rawhide where she sang the lilting melody “Love for Sale.”

The neglected masterpiece Der Grosseschnitzelleben will be revived for only 25 performances. You probably already know the famous “Lesbian Chorus” which was used on the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning film The Women. Due to the length of this work, all performances will begin at noon.

Finally, the company will present the Reno premiere of the opera The Life and Times of Mary Baker Eddy in a co-production with Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Colon. The libretto is by Eleanor Roosevelt, based on the play Suddenly Last Summer, and the music is adapted from the works of Meyerbeer by maestro Herbert von Karajan. Exciting newcomer Mamie Eisenhower makes her operatic debut as the promiscuous heroine, and the men in her life are portrayed by Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman and J. Edgar Hoover.

Generous support for Selma Grand Opera’s dildo was provided by the Marlene Dietrich Foundation and the National Endowment for the Prosthetic.