For the first time, the Penn State Opera Theatre will showcase a more modern and edgy tone under a new director.

The Penn State Opera Theatre, a School of Music organization, has a new director, assistant professor of music Ted Christopher. Tonight will be his first production with the opera group, Christopher said.

Christopher was formerly assistant director at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., before arriving at the Penn State Opera Theatre this year.

The group's latest production, Four Little Chests: Scenes from American Operas, will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Esber Recital Hall, Music Building I. Tickets will be available at the door before the performance. The production features scenes from Little Women, The Crucible and Post Card from Morocco.

Christopher said his position at Penn State entails more than just teaching and directing but also working hard to make the organization visible.

"My job as director is one part teaching, one part directing and one part hustling," Christopher said. "Like any performing component at a big school you have to fight to be noticed."

With this production, Christopher made the decision to use operas in English --specifically not translated from another language, he said. When operas are written for another language, some of the meaning can be lost, he said.

"I chose to focus on American operas because ... we're American," Christopher said. "Twentieth-century opera has more of an edgy, theatrical repertoire. Although I adore the traditional repertoire, young people can feel constrained by it."

More contemporary opera lends to a more liberating experience, Christopher said.

"Contemporary stuff can be, in a way, freeing," he said. "Students can feel more free to take risks."

Modern opera can be much more unpredictable compared to romantic scenes from traditional operas, Patrick Hagen (junior-voice performance) said.

"You have to know each piece of music by heart. Each person's voice has to move independently," Hagen said.

Each student in the Penn State Opera Theatre has a passion for performing, said Beverly Patton, the musical director and conductor.

Alison Thomas (graduate-vocal performance and pedagogy), who received her undergraduate degree from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, N.Y., is a member of the Penn State Opera Theatre. She described opera as an emotionally freeing experience.

"Opera is the point where emotion becomes so heightened that there are no words to describe it -- then we sing it," Thomas said. "This opera [Four Little Chests] is modern and abstract. If Salvador Dali made an opera, this would be it."

The title of the production is derived from Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women, with the first three words being "Four little chests ... ," also the first three words in the Penn State opera production.

"The chests are used differently in each scene. They represent the baggage that people carry in each of the opera's storylines," Thomas said.

Throughout the scenes from different opera performances, four chests are on the floor as focal props, Thomas said.

Though opera is a musical art form, people may not realize how much acting is involved, Christopher said.

"Opera is lyrical theatre. It sits exactly in between theatre and music -- both are essential," Christopher said. "Programs try to favor one or the other but it doesn't work. You have to give absolute attention to both."