Cyrano's sold out the first couple of shows of "Souvenir" and, judging from the audience's reaction, I'm guessing that word of mouth has continued to draw good houses.

The play, based on the bizarre career of Florence Foster Jenkins, a rich New Yorker who couldn't sing, but thought she could, gave concerts and made recordings, offers plenty of opportunities to yelp with laughter.

One scene, in which she listens in obvious rapture to a record of her own horribly imprecise version of the Queen of the Night's aria from the first act of "The Magic Flute" while her accompanist writhes with chagrin had theater-goers snorting chardonnay through their noses.

But the production is something of a tightrope act. The comic element is obvious and must be front and center. At the same time the performers can't overdo it without jeopardizing the fairly fragile veneer of credibility that is necessary for us to care about them as people.

Real-life opera singer Kate Egan balances Jenkins' upper class pretentiousness with a sense of real warmth -- at least toward her accompanist, Cosme McMoon, who serves as the narrator of the tale.

Gerald Steichen, who plays McMoon, is an excellent and serious conductor who'll be heading to Utah to work with an orchestra as soon as this gig is over; but here he has to mug and sing as a lounge pianist. (In that regard, he doesn't do too badly, but I would not suggest that he give up his day job.) His task is to balance his gob-smacked astonishment at Jenkins with empathy for her.

Stephen Temperley's script runs a bit long for a two-hander, even with the music. But director Bill Fabris has kept the pacing as tight as possible, and it's probably impossible to shorten the piece without sacrificing some of the musical element.

On the night when I attended there were a number of opera fans in the crowd who split their sides upon hearing the first notes of the "Bell Song" from "Lakme." But operatic novices will have no problem catching the humor.

You can catch "Souvenir" at 3 p.m. today and next Sunday, and 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, at Cyrano's, 413 D St. More comments are posted with last week's story, "Off key, but on target," at adn.com/arts.

Varied quality at music fest

The Affetti Music Festival last weekend left me a little flummoxed. The programs were ostensibly an offshoot of music workshops. Students played a few recital pieces in alteration with the teachers presenting more substantial fare. I attended the Saturday night program at St. Andrew's church in Eagle River, anxious to hear what the pros sounded like.

The serious offerings on that program included (I think; no program was available -- I asked three times) a beautifully-balanced Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, featuring Russell Harlow on clarinet, violinists Stephani Sant'Ambrogio and Ella Marie Gray, violist Karyn Grove-Bruce and cellist Aron Zelkowicz. Harlow was heard again in Glazunov's "Oriental Reverie."

A bigger ensemble was employed to premiere "Alaskan Landscapes" by Vance Zuelsdorff, an energetic and melodic trio of movements. Zuelsdorff made a few remarks about the music that were largely incoherent in the baffling acoustics of St. Andrew's. The giant space, a miracle when a capella voice music is involved, experiences echo problems when more complex instrumental lines are introduced and, for some reason, speech seems reduced to verbal approximation.

Even speaking with another person at close proximity between numbers I found it hard to understand what he was saying.

The program went quite long, due in part to the necessity of rearranging large numbers of chairs for each piece. But what I'd driven through the hurricane to hear, Dvorak's Piano Quintet, finally came up. Gray, Sant'Ambrogio and Zelkowicz were joined by violist Leslie Harlow and pianist Yoojin Oh. They played boldly and well, for the most part, though by the final movement a certain weariness was evident.

Young singer scholarship

Alaska Sound Celebration, the award-winning women's a cappella chorus, is running its "Sing For Scholarships" contest for the sixth year. Twenty audition spots are available on a first come basis.

Auditions will take place Tuesday at which time finalists will be chosen.

Soloists and vocal ensembles are eligible and the top five finalists will receive a personal cash prize that will be matched by one for their school.

Registrations can be made at www.alaskasoundcelebration.org

The finale of the contest will take place Sept. 25 at the Discovery Theatre during the Alaska Sound Celebration's annual Fall Show. This is a free event in which the audience votes on the eventual winner.

Also at that show will be Alaska A Cappella University, a younger women's chorus open to middle and high school girls.

A one-day workshop will be held Sept. 25. More details can be found www.alaskaacappellau.org

Authentic Balimiut art

A good Native Alaska mask can run a couple of thousand dollars. So imagine the thrill of being offered six Alaska Native masks for a mere $100. Unfortunately they have been made in Indonesia, according to the posting on Craig's List. Photos posted at the site (anchorage. craigslist.org/art/1910342528. html) showed the pieces, an assortment of varying quality, apparently colored to look as if they were antiques.

At least the seller is being honest and not trying to mask the origin.