Vale Rideout is still ruffled by the recent exchange he had with a Coeur d'Alene woman.

"Do you like opera?" he ventured.

"Oh, no," she replied. "I usually like hip hop and rap."

"Have you ever been to the opera?" he persisted.

"Well..." she hesitated. "No."

Rideout's disappointment didn't so much stem from the fact that stuffy opera-lovers pay his bills, as the tenor has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe performing in operas in most major cities.

It's because opera has such a bad rap, he said.

"People think opera, they think people singing loud with big vibratos and really large people," said Rideout, who hails from northeastern Pennsylvania. "But it really is theater, and it's becoming that more and more. You go to opera to believe the characters on stage."

He assured that all of the classic character complexes - drama, romance, tragedy - will not be snoozers by any means this weekend at Opera Coeur d'Alene's production of "Faust."

Rideout, whose playbill bio is crammed with performances at institutions like Chautauqua Opera and Carnegie Hall, is among several globe-trotting divas dropping in for a fury of quick rehearsals before the performances today and Sunday

"The people on stage, they're attractive, they're engaging, you want to watch what their characters do," promised Rideout, playing the lead of Faust. "There's some really good conflict that happens."

Following the temptation-laden journey of a man who brokers a deal with the devil, "Faust" is no slight undertaking, said Director Aaron St. Clair Nicholson.

The French opera, composed by Charles Gounod, boasts a town of a cast, and this production includes a full orchestra and sumptuous costumes and backdrops.

"It's daunting," Nicholson said.

But the magnitude of the performance is half the fun for the audience, he added.

"It's got everything that great operas offer," said Nicholson, a baritone who has also performed in several productions of Faust. "It's got duets about love, trios about death and full ensembles about drinking. Solos about going crazy. It's just got everything."

While most will have to rely on displayed subtitles to comprehend the French lyrics, Nicholson guaranteed that the themes of good versus evil, the fight between God and Satan, the redemption of love, will be familiar to all.

And most will recognize the trio sung at the finale of the two-and-a-half hour production, he said, which has a melody used in a multitude of movies and commercials.

"People become familiar with them and don't even realize it," he said.

The seasoned performers in the cast enjoy working with small companies like Opera Coeur d'Alene, that don't push the usual grandstanding, said Shana Blake Hill.

The Los Angeles soprano plays Marguerite, Faust's love interest whose life takes some nosedives thanks to his devil intrigues.

All the cast members have the required passion to survive as artists in this economy, pointed out Blake Hill, who performed in Opera Coeur d'Alene's "La Boheme" last year, and has appeared as a principal artist with the Los Angeles Opera, the Savonlinna Festival Opera in Finland and Cincinnati Opera.

So expect some impressive windpipes, she said.

"I travel all over the country singing, sometimes the world, and this is the best cast you're going to get anywhere," Blake Hill said.

And the $35 tickets are truly a fraction of what such a production would usually cost, Rideout noted.

"I think there is something really for everyone," he said.

Other cast members include Jamie Offenbach as Mephistopheles, Cody Bray as Wagner and Jason Detwiler as Valentin.

"Faust" will be performed at 7:30 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday at Schuler Auditorium on the North Idaho College campus.

Folks can purchase tickets at the door, or by calling 769-7780. They can also buy tickets online at www.operacda.org.

"I just hope that more people will take an opportunity to try it out," Rideout said.