The debut of the Tarrant County Opera Project's The Magic Flute by Mozart at Ed Landreth Auditorium this weekend will also feature the first professional performance together by a Fort Worth father and his TCU son.
 
Bass-baritone Robert Adams, who sang with the Fort Worth Opera in the 1980s, will perform the role of "Sarastro" as his son, Michael, a TCU freshman, plays the Third Slave. 
 
The Magic Flute is a collaborative project of four universities who decided last year to merge their vocal talents. TCU, Texas Wesleyan, UT Arlington, and Tarrant County College have collaborated to present this first production of their Tarrant County Opera Project.
 
Performances are April 23 and 24 at 7:30 p.m. and April 25 at 2:30 p.m. in Ed Landreth Auditorium. The cast includes young talent from the four local colleges as well as additional singers from the community for a total of 66 singers in all.  The fully-staged production is underwritten by TCU and features the TCU Symphony Orchestra and TCU choirs.

The young singers from Texas Wesleyan, UTA, and TCC have an opportunity to perform onstage in a full production with orchestra, currently not available on their own campuses, while TCU is able to produce a large cast opera.  This provides in-depth experience for singers and an opportunity for the TCU Symphony to play a full-length opera.

The production, performed in the English version by Andrew Porter, is directed by Richard Estes (director of Opera Studies at TCU) and conducted by Germán Gutiérrez, with chorus master, Maritza Caceres.  Sets were designed by Wade Giampa. 

Faculty collaborators for the Tarrant County Opera Project are: 
•    Texas Wesleyan University—Julie McCoy and Jennifer Carr 
•    University of Texas at Arlington—Soo Hong Kim
•    Tarrant County College—Patricia Bedford
•    Texas Christian University—Richard Estes

General admission at the door is priced at adults $10, seniors $5, FREE to students, faculty and staff of all colleges and universities in Tarrant County.