The Ball State University School of Music will merge music and theater during "A Night at the Opera: Scenes and One-Acts" at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28-29 in the David and Mary Jane Sursa Performance Hall.

"This performance, like all opera performances, will be a synthesis of all the major arts together — the visual of the theater and the aural of serious classical music," said Craig Priebe, director. "When the two elements work hand-in-hand, it's absolutely magical. We'll strive for that magic — where people are transported by the music and drawn in by the drama."

The performance includes two one-act operas and four scenes from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutte" and "Die Zauberflote" (The Magic Flute), which will be performed fully in German; Domenico Cimarosa's "Il Matrimonio Segreto" (The Secret Marriage), which will be sung in Italian with English supertitles; and Otto Nicolai's "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

The scenes, as well as "Gallantry," a one-act opera by composer Douglas Moore, will have piano accompaniment. The other one-act, "A Hand of Bridge" by composer Samuel Barber, includes an orchestration of 12 instruments.

The performance will serve as the introduction of Joseph Levitt, one of the department's newest faculty members, who will direct parts of the evening's performances. Doctoral graduate students Lisa Dawson and Tammy Huntington will also help direct the show.

"A Night at the Opera: Scenes and One-Acts" will take place in the 600-seat, "tunable" performance hall. Sursa is part of the $21 million Music Instruction Building, Ball State's newest building. The acoustics of the hall allow performers to sing during rehearsals just as they will sound during performances.

"We don't have to amplify the singers in Sursa," said Priebe. "It's a perfect venue for the chamber operas that we're doing."

"A Hand of Bridge," features two couples that play bridge every night. They'll perform a soliloquy about their unspoken lust and desires, which will be accompanied by the Ball State Chamber Orchestra and conducted by graduate doctoral student Devin Hughes. It will be the first time a production has used Sursa's hydraulic orchestra pit.

The other one-act, "Gallantry," follows a soap opera sequence of the 1950s similar to "General Hospital" and features Ball State football player Albert Redd.

Tickets are available at the Emens Box Office, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. General admission is $5 but free to Ball State students, faculty and staff who pick up their tickets prior to 4:30 p.m. Jan. 28. For more information, call the School of Music at (765) 285-5842 or the Box Office at (765) 285-1539.

(Note to editors: For more information, contact Priebe at (765) 285-5404 or cpriebe@bsu.edu.)