For the first time in State College and for one night only, the Penn State Opera Theatre will perform an "utterly romantic, serious but funny" opera and vignette at the State Theatre.

Mike Negra, executive director of the State Theatre, said the theater shows the Metropolitan Opera in High Definition on the big screen -- but this is the first time the State Theatre will have a live opera.

An ensemble within the School of Theatre at Penn State will perform Trials and Telephones: A Series of One-Act Operas, Beverly Patton, musical director of Penn State Opera Theatre, said.

"The Telephone" takes place in the 1950s when party lines -- where more than one person uses the same telephone number -- were popular, Patton said. One of the main characters, Ben, wants to propose to his girlfriend, but she is too busy talking on the phone and he can't get her attention.

'The Telephone' is funny and modern," performer Emily Brand (graduate-voice performance and pedagogy) said. "It's very cute and accessible. It's not sappy or hard to understand."

A Valentine vignette will follow "The Telephone."

Brand said the vignette is a short production no longer than 10 minutes.

"Emily Brand is performing four songs by Strauss," Patton said. "They are being mimed and interpreted by two actors so the audience understands the story."

The vignette is sung in German, its original language, Brand said. The songs include: "Morgen!," "Cäcilie" and "Ständchen."

"We are playing the vignette music that is ro-

mantic; it's very emotional," Brand said. "And

the way the music is written it's very clear what's going on even if you don't know what the words are saying."

The final performance in a series of one-act operas is a 30-minute Gilbert and Sullivan spoof called "Trial by Jury."

"It's fast and funny and everyone will end up laughing and having a hoot and holler," Patton said.

Brand added the Gilbert and Sullivan performance is pure entertainment -- true to how people think and act.

"It's a great date night for a guy who wants to show a girl he has an elevated sense of class," Brand said.