Inmates Sent to Sing for Their Sentence

CINCINNATI — Call them the prisoners of the opera.

Twenty-one jail inmates were sent into service as extras for Friday night’s performance of Verdi’s “Aida” on orders from Hamilton County Judge Norbert Nadel, an opera fan, who volunteered them.

Nadel said the time the inmates spent rehearsing and performing for the Cincinnati Opera Assn. production would be credited toward the community service hours their sentences require.

All are in jail for nonviolent crimes connected with drug or alcohol abuse.