Stephen Tanner grew up in Cambridge, Mass. with a yen for music, theatre and creating mirth. During twenty years of living in several European opera capitals he purposely rubbed elbows with the widest variety of opera folk and gained many glimpses into the life in the opera world and the "light" motifs of backstage humor: flubs, idiocy, vanity, imbroglios, squabbles, vendettas and dirty tricks. He lives in southern California. Umberto Taccola lives in Isernia, Italy.