Lina Andreasson Corsair

Sue Anne Pinner, Santa Monica College music teacher rehersed with her opera class, last Tuesday, for their Saturday, Nov. 22 performance in the Concert Hall.

• Comedy as well as classical pieces will be performed by SMC student opera singers.

The Santa Monica College Opera Theatre is set to put together another night of outstanding performance this fall.

On Nov. 22, the Emmy award-winning SMC Opera Theatre will be presenting "An Evening of Opera Highlights" at 8 p.m. in the Concert Hall.

Artistic Director Sue Ann Pinner has no doubts that the performance will exemplify the hard work that the students put into the show.

The singers begin practicing for the performance on the first night of class and take every precaution to preserve their voices.

"A performance of opera like what they're doing requires them for several weeks to sleep eight hours, not party," said Pinner.

"I tell them that opera is the Olympics of singing," she said.

Many of the 24 singers featured have come from Pinner's 50A and 50B singing classes and will be putting their voices on display for the first time this fall.

One of the four operas to be represented will be "The Ballad of Baby Doe" by Douglas Moore.

This opera is based on the true story of Baby Doe Tabor, played by soprano Melissa Sills, and Horace Tabor, played by baritone Jason Payne.

The opera, which takes place during the Colorado gold rush, uses American folk melodies and recounts the story of a young woman and her marriage to her wealthy second husband.

The night will also include highlights from the 1874 Johann Strauss operetta, "Die Fledermaus." The Viennese opera is a fusion of comedy and opera.

The singers will also be performing highlights from Mozart's "Don Giovanni," an opera sung in Italian. This opera tells the story of a handsome man with an unquenchable lust for women and his constant conquest of them.

The last opera to be presented will be the "Daughter of the Regiment" by Donizetti.