PROFESSORS, STUDENTS OFF TO ROME FESTIVAL

The Operafestival di Roma concerts will take place in the courtyard of the Instituto di S. Alessio Margherita di Savoia, the former residence of Pope Pius V.

Louisa Panou-Takahashi leaves for Rome Monday to begin directing Operafestival di Roma 1995, a six-week cavalcade of concerts, recitals and classes that give university singers from around the world an opportunity to sing and study in the birthplace of opera.

An assistant professor of music at Southeast, Panou-Takahasi and Rome-based music director Stefano Vignati created the festival this year. The two previously had collaborated on the performance-only Rome Festival for the past three summers.

They wanted to provide the students with a chance to receive training along with the performance experience, Panou-Takahashi said.

The Operafestival di Roma has amassed $144,000 in fees and contributions in its first year, and was able to provide five full scholarships and many partial scholarships.

"Can you believe we did this?" Panou-Takahashi marveled.

The money will pay for hotel rooms and tuition, cultural tours and such production expenses as costumes, lighting and scenery. Except for the soloists, the orchestra has been hired from Italian musicians.

The festival also has paid transportation and lodging costs for the 35-member West Los Angeles Spiritual Choir, which will appear in two concerts and sing as the chorus in "The Magic Flute."

A number of individuals in Southeast Missouri made substantial contributions to the cause, as did two businesses -- Biokyowa Inc. and Shivelbine's Music Store.

Both De Pauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and Belmont University in Nashville provided complete sponsorships of individual singers.

On June 20, Panou-Takahashi will be joined in Rome by four Southeast students and 36 other singers from such diverse climes as Japan, Israel, Canada and all over the U.S.

The Southeast students are Donna Smith of Cape Girardeau and Jason Shaffer of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, both of whom just completed their junior years; Patryce King of New Cambria, who will begin her sophomore year; and Jeni Kafka of Cape Girardeau, a nonstudent who will re-enroll at the university in the fall.

All except King are students of Panou-Takahashi's. King, an accompanist and soloist, is a student of James Sifferman, an associate professor of music at Southeast.

Smith, who will sing the lead role of Pamina in Mozart's "The Magic Flute" in Rome, will not remain at Southeast next year, however. The third-place finisher in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Midwest Regional Auditions is transferring to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Shaffer has the role of the villainous Monostatos in "The Magic Flute," which will be performed six times with three different casts. Kafka plays the supporting role of Papagena, and King will be an accompanist and soloist.

Sifferman, a pianist, will be a member of the festival faculty of nine, which is complemented by a teacher of Italian and opera coaches.

His performance of Mozart's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra K.488 on July 21 will be broadcast nationally by Radio televisione Italiana.

The concerts will take place in the courtyard of the Instituto di S. Alessio Margherita di Savoia, the former residence of Pope Pius V. The structure, which now serves as a school for the blind, was built in 1566.

The students who will perform were selected from about 200 who sent audition tapes.

Four students from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana are participating, along with singers from Houston, New York, Atlanta, Seattle, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio and Maryland.

Panou-Takahashi points to a master class to be taught by American-born, Rome-based opera singer Alice Elizabeth Baker as an example of the benefits that await the students.

Baker, who often sings with the Teatro dell Opera di Roma and recently finished a stint with the Vancouver Opera, simply had phoned Panou-Takahashi to offer the use of her apartment.

"I said, Don't worry about the apartment," the festival director recalled. "We have students like Donna Smith who are at the point in their career where they just need a break, and you can give them a lot of valuable information about your own experiences."

The festival will conclude July 28.