RELEASE ON RECEIPT Please Note: Opera Workshop Performances Are Set for Nov. 16 and Nov. 20. Details are below. U.VA. MUSIC LECTURER FELL FOR OPERA WHEN YOUNG, HAS BEEN HITTING THE HIGH NOTES EVER SINCE CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 15 -- While millions of teenagers polished their penny loafers and perfected their twist, at least one youngster's musical experience proved just the opposite. At 15, Louisa Panou-Takahashi tossed all her rock'n'roll records and replaced them with a single album -- "Carmen" by Maria Callas. "I adored Elvis Presley. But hearing Callas, it was instant," said the University of Virginia music lecturer, who heads U.Va.'s unique Opera Workshop and is founding director of the Operafestival di Roma, held each summer in Rome. From that moment on, the Cyprus-born Panou-Takahashi wanted to be a soprano. But there was no opera on her Mediterranean island. Undeterred, she sang for family and friends, then one day happened to read a small newspaper ad about an audition in Palermo, Sicily. Her grandfather, whom she credits with inspiring her passion for opera -- "he gave me the album" -- agreed to take her there. She earned a small part in Giovanni Paisiello's "Don Chichotte della Mancha" and literally fell into the role. Opening night of her stage debut, the nervous 16-year old tripped, landing on her belly. Frozen with fear, she performed the part from the ground. The audience laughed, though the director was less than amused, Panou Takahashi recalled. She overcame her stage fright and stayed in Sicily for a two-year apprenticeship. "I came out of it knowing all of the operas, because we were required to be at all of the performances and were given small parts in exchange for our work," running errands, helping with props, whatever was needed. In addition to her apprenticeship, Panou-Takahashi earned her undergraduate degree from St. Cecilia Conservatory in Rome in 1970, a Certificate of Chamber Music Performance from the Conservatorio de Musica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan in 1979, an Opera Performance Certificate from Bayerisches Staatstheater in 1984, a Master's in music from Kent State University in 1987 and a Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1989. "It wasn't until I pursued my doctorate that I discovered my love of directing and producing opera as well as for performing," Panou-Takahashi said. Since then, she has blended both interests. Before arriving at U.Va. two years ago, she taught on the university faculties of Brigham Young, Minnesota and Southeast Missouri State and the State Conservatory in Greece. During this time, she also performed the operatic leads in a number of European and U.S. operas. Today Panou-Takahashi, who is fluent in five languages, teaches courses on applied voice and lyric diction in Italian, German and French. She also heads U.Va.'s Opera Workshop, a growing, new program that offers students performance credit. "The University wanted more student involvement in this program, as well as community participation," she said, noting that students don't have to be music majors to participate. "There are a lot of students here who are very talented ... yet don't plan to become professional performers, and that's OK. It's not an easy life," said Panou Takahashi. The life of a performer consists of "fierce competition, politics, rejection, job insecurity, never-ending auditions, rehearsals and performances." This semester, 20 U.Va. students are enrolled in the opera workshop, as well as a number of community and faculty participants. The culmination of their work during the fall session will be a concert, titled "An Evening at the Opera," Nov. 20 at 8:15 p.m. in Cabell Hall Auditorium. For tickets, call the box office at 924-3984. A benefit performance will also be given Nov. 16 at 3 p.m. at Charlottesville's Senior Center. Admission is $6. In the spring, opera workshop participants will give another benefit for the Senior Center, as well as a benefit for the music department, titled "Dinner at the Opera," on April 3 at Farmington Country Club. In addition to her work on Grounds, Panou-Takahashi directs the Operafestival di Roma, a non-profit educational organization she founded in 1993 that offers young singers and instrumentalists from all nations a chance to study and perform Italian Opera in Rome. This summer, five U.Va. students attended the festival: Michael Belinkie, Sara Botkin, Anjanette Radford, John Stanzione and Star Trompeter. "They were all very good singers, though not all of them were music majors," noted Panou Takahashi, who encourages people of all ages -- faculty, community members and students -- to audition Jan. 17 for the coming festival's production of "Magic Flute," July 4-30, 1998. If considering the summer program, come prepared to work, she warned. A typical day runs from 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m., complete with rehearsals, classes and foreign language lessons. Around mid-July, five opera shows and four chamber music concerts are performed daily until the festival concludes. The operas are performed in the courtyard of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, a baroque church that served as the University of Rome from the 15th century until 1935 and is now used as the archives of the state and the meeting place of the senate. "From the monsignor to state bureaucrats to union workers, there are lots of egos and lots of building restrictions," Panou-Takahashi said. "But it's worth it. The acoustics are magnificent, and it's in the heart of Rome." The planning starts long before participants arrive in Rome. At U.Va. it has become an interdisciplinary effort. Drama department costume designer and assistant professor Kathryn Rohe created all of last year's festival costumes, and the department's seamstress, Dorothy Smith, sewed them. Both have committed to do the same for next summer's production, Panou-Takahashi said. "We're hoping others at U.Va. will be involved, too, with such things as stage design and scenery." One new venture for the coming festival is an academic course on "Opera in Performance," proposed by Panou-Takahashi's U.Va. colleague, Elizabeth Hudson. Designed for non-majors, the course will be taught by Hudson, assistant professor of music, in Rome in conjunction with the summer Operafestival di Roma. "To my knowledge, ours is the only festival in the world to offer students either academic or performance credit," Panou-Takahashi said. ### November 14, 1997 For more details on the audition or the workshop performances, call Louisa Panou-Takahashi at 984-4945 or fax or e-mail her at 984-5220 or operafest@aol.com. Television reporters should call our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.