PRINCE RAMIRO stops in lovestruck mid-duet and says to the director, "She's so pure, it's awkward to look her in the eye."

"Look her in the eye. It's all about Cinderella, right?"

Cinderella smiles mysteriously and murmurs to no one in particular, "Right."

Even in rehearsal, in jeans, T-shirt, tennis shoes and street makeup, Tamara Mumford seems perfectly cast for this highly coveted part among mezzo-sopranos. You don't have to be a prince to be bewitched by her long dark hair, big brown eyes and alabaster skin, or the purity and sincerity of her singing.

Rossini's libretto is the exception, not the rule. Opera composers usually score the chandelier-shaking diva roles for sopranos and the skyscraper end of their vocal range. Sultry-voiced mezzos like Mumford get to play mean mothers and page boys.

Maria Zifchak of the Metropolitan Opera will star as Cinderella in the actual performances, except Friday's matinee. That performance will mark Tamara Mumford's first with Utah Festival Opera since her graduation from Utah State in May 2003.

In the fall of 2003 Mumford began her master's degree studies at a Yale program limited to 16 students on full scholarships, in contrast to the hundreds who are thrilled to be accepted by the more impersonal, but equally lustrous Juilliard or Manhattan School of Music. Yale's recruiter heard Tamara Mumford sing at the 2001 MacAllister Competition. She was a sophomore competing against graduate students and young professional singers, and she won the prize for all-around singer-performer.

Utah State music professor Cindy Dewey was Mumford's voice teacher at the time. "We have lots of talented students. Tamara worked harder than anybody else." (more)