The West Virginia University Opera Theatre will celebrate the operas and composers of Vienna Feb. 5-7 at the WVU Creative Arts Center .

Viennese Confections,a production of the WVU Division of Music , will begin at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 and 6 and 3:15 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Gladys G. Davis Theatre . Robert Thieme , head of the WVU opera program in WVU ’s College of Creative Arts , will be director.

The program will featureThe Merry Widowby Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehr. The librettists were Victor Leon and Leo Stein, and the English version, which the WVU Opera Theatre will perform, is by Christopher Hassal.

This operetta premiered at the Theatre an der Wien in Vienna in 1905. It was Lehrs first major success and became the most popular opera of its era. WVU voice students will perform songs from this opera in both English and German.

There will also be a selection of works by Austrian composer Robert Stolz, who composed both operettas and film music and was a noted conductor. These include the overture from Stotzs operettaTrauminsel,which was performed for the first time in 1962, as well as several duets and an aria, all of which will be sung in German.

The final selection on the program will be works fromDie Fledermaus,an operetta composed by Johann Strauss to a German libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée.

These songs will be sung in English.Die Fledermauspremiered in 1874 at the Theatre an der Wien and is one of the most performed operatic works in North America.

WVU voice students who will be featured in solos and duets in the concert include Dorothy Smith, Michael Talerico, Min Sue Kim, Georgina Gatto, Justin Barclay, Chasdon Mike, George Simpson, Alejandro Belden, Jarrell Strickland, Dan Ferguson, Matt Lightfoot, Sam Fuge, Marissa Bloom, MaryJoanna Grisso, Jeanna Nestor and Maria Mahe.

For tickets and information, contact the Mountainlair Box Office at 304-293-SHOW.