Ah, what better sign could we have that summer is here than the arrival of the summer music festivals? Over at Ionarts, this DCist is keeping track of opera festivals around the world this summer. While we don’t have an actual summer opera festival in Washington — which could be a great idea, like the Metropolitan Opera’s Met in the Park in New York — we have a number of small opera companies that perform mostly in the summer. Happily, given how hot and unbearably humid the weather has been some days lately, these performances are all inside cool auditoriums.

OPERA:
>> This week the Summer Opera Theatre Company is producing its first of two operas, Cendrillon by Jules Massenet. Summer Opera Theatre has gained a reputation for unusual interpretations of traditional operas, and this season is no different. The action of this Cendrillon is transposed to the political world of Washington, D.C., with an upwardly mobile young girl trying to “network her way into the heart of the President’s son.” The premiere was Sunday afternoon, and we have heard positive reports. Remaining performances are scheduled for Wednesday (June 15 at 7:30 p.m.), Friday (June 17 at 7:30 p.m.), and Sunday (June 19 at 2:30 p.m.), in the Hartke Theatre (3801 Harewood Rd. NE) on the campus of Catholic University. Tickets: $38 to $110 ($25 with valid student ID, or RUSH tickets for $25, available to the first in line, one half-hour before curtain).