If you drool while thumbing through the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. brochure every spring, I have happy news. You don't have to go to Charleston, S.C., or anywhere else to experience a major arts festival.

        Try Cincinnati next weekend.

        And please, take along a local politician. There are things going on here they need to know about — and support.

        Anchoring the weekend: two offerings from Cincinnati Opera, whose national (and international) reputation is going up, up, up.

        New to opera? There's no better place to start than Mozart's Magic Flute, a delightful (and tuneful) fantasy about good triumphing over evil and true love finding its way.

        It will be scrumptious to look at with design by illustrator Maurice Sendak, who has been called “the Picasso of children's books” for good reason.

        The opera added more Friday performances to the schedule as it becomes serious about establishing a festival format. Subscribers haven't bought up all the good seats. Call 241-2742.

        You'll see lots of out-of-towners at Nabucco, one of the summer's Big Deal arts events.

        Opera artistic director Nic Muni has a reputation for delivering jaw-dropping productions, and Nabucco has all the good stuff — ambition, jealousy, attempted murder, madness. (This must be why they call opera grand.)

        It features big names Lauren Flanigan (Time magazine calls her “the thinking man's diva”) and the U.S. debut of Georgian baritone Lado Atanelli.

        People are going to be talking about Nabucco. (They are still talking about Madame Butterfly and the Robert LePage double bill that already have played). Tickets are dear. You might be able to snag a couple if you call now.

        No doubt you'll be spending at least one night at the WIZ Coors Light Riverfront Jazz Festival.

        After starting the day with a leisurely brunch, stop in at the Taft Museum of Art (316 Pike St.) and admire the newly opened Modern Masters show. Up in Eden Park, admission to Cincinnati Art Museum is free through the summer.

        If you're playing tourist-in-your-own-town with kids, add Avner the Eccentric to your list. (Although you'll like him even if you don't have kids in tow.)

        The internationally acclaimed funny guy is bringing his act to Playhouse in the Park starting next weekend. There are early curtain times (7 p.m.) and matinees to accommodate families.(421-3888).

        With the opera experimenting with added performances and a festival calendar, Playhouse producing shows in both theaters and the promise of new museums (and the Taft's museum expansion), there is a foundation to make Cincinnati a summer arts destination.

        Two things need to happen:

        • Other arts companies operating in summer need to raise their standards so they can catch part of a national spotlight and help it shine more brightly.

        • Cincinnati needs to get media savvy fast. We've been giving ourselves black eyes in the national and international news for months.

        A national and international arts reputation could go a long way toward changing the way the world is looking at us. (Or maybe you didn't hear about Great Britain's warning to their citizens about traveling here.)

        Look no further than Cleveland to see how good media spin can work. More than a decade ago the city used the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to re-introduce arts and travel writers to the city. By the end of the festivities, the perception of “Mistake on the Lake” was gone.

        Make yourself heard. Call the Mayor's Office (352-3250). Call Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau (621-2142).

        While you're at it, call the Charter Committee of Greater Cincinnati (241-0303) which also has a mayoral candidate this year.

        Tell them there are tools at hand to start rebuilding our city's reputation and ask how they're planning to use them.

        Come downtown next weekend for a sampling of what Cincinnati has to offer — then tell everyone you know.

        "Monologues' visit rumored: “I can't confirm that rumor,” said Aronoff spokesman Van Ackerman. Since he also didn't deny it, I'll report current buzz that Eve Ensler's heralded Vagina Monologues, in which women ponder their most intimate selves,will have January dates at the Jarson-Kaplan.

        If it turns out to be true, bravo to Aronoff exec director Steve Loftin. He's been making cautious but committed programming moves since taking over a year ago, starting with a risky booking of early Julie Taymor mask-and-puppet drama The King Stag last fall. It had low attendance but made a clear statement about a will to finally explore quality, alternative programming where possible.

        Hip premieres: Speaking of alternative programming, the 2001-02 Studio Series at University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music is mucho hip, including two area preems from the drama department and some welcome, rare revivals from musical theater.

        The schedule: Oct. 18-20, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance; Nov. 1-3, the regional premiere of As Bees in Honey Drown, all about fabulous (if amoral) young people in fabulous (if amoral) Manhattan; Nov. 9-11, Gian Carlo Menotti's one-act opera The Medium; Jan. 11-12, Transformations by Conrad Susa; Feb. 14-16, Six Characters in Search of an Author; March 7-9, Nine; April 25-27, She Loves Me; May 16-18, Stop Kiss, regional premiere of Diana Son's contemporary drama about two young women exploring the boundaries of their relationship; May 24-25, The Memory Game, is the world premiere of CCM faculty member Joel Hoffman's opera.

        With the exception of Transformations, all productions are in CCM's Studio Theater and free, although tickets go fast. Be prepared to make reservations (556-4183) starting Monday of the week of the performance.

        Transformations, which uses Anne Sexton's reconsideration of Grimm's fairy tales as its basis,will be performed in the Patricia Corbett Theater and tickets will be required, price to be determined.

        Rising Phoenix open: Rising Phoenix Theatre Company is happy to be open for business in Middletown. (Do not say the words “Actor's Rep” — from whose ashes arose Rising Phoenix — to anyone involved.)

        Executive director Christine Brunner happily lists upcoming activities:

        On July 26 the theater will hold a workshop of Hood — A New Musical, which will be produced March 21-31; Aug. 4-5, season auditions, call (513) 705-4131 for details; an August fund-raiser (details TBA).

        First season: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

        New "Medea': “I know what I intend to do is wrong/But the rage of my heart is stronger than my reason/That is the cause of all men's foulest crimes.”

        The words are Medea's, driven to the brink of despair (of course by a treacherous lover) and on the verge of committing the unspeakable.

        Tony Dallas' new adaptation of Euripides' classic tragedy will be performed Thursday-July 29 in Antioch Area Theater's annual Shakespeare Under the Stars in the Miles Goodman Amphitheater, Corry Street in Yellow Springs. Serendipitously, the amphitheater was modeled on the one at Epidarus.

        Louise Smith, solo performance artist and head of the Antioch College theater department takes the title role. “She's the granddaughter of a god — and also a mother who is pushed to the edge.

        “The classic Greek plays are about deep human emotion, emotion for all time. Is she a good person? The audience has to decide that.”

        Dayton area playwright and director Mr. Dallas is known to Cincinnati audiences for past work at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati.

        He says he's adapted Medea to appeal to a contemporary audience with multi-media, pyrotechnics and live music.

        “I pulled out the robes of ancient Greece and set it in the 1920s. I wanted the audience to feel the tragedy, the power of god-force and not see it as something antiquarian and safe.”

        Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. Tickets $7, $5 students/seniors. Call (937) 769-1030 for reservations.

        Contact Jackie Demaline by phone: 768-8530; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jdemaline@yahoo.com.

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