Maestro Ditlow gave us an exciting overture and kept it all together ... Certainly she did not fall into the traps mentioned above by James Conlon.  Somehow it seemed appropriate that Norma, one of the most powerful and complex female leads in opera, was brought to life by three women—Mesdames Oshe, Stickann and Ditlow - 

 

This was such a fine Norma because all of the elements came together—the first rate singing, the involving production and acting, and of course the music and the story itself.    Spunky little Opera Southwest set out to climb the ‘Everest of opera’, and by heaven and the Druidic gods, they made it to the top.