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CCM's Cohen series a gift to its fans

College-Conservatory of Music's free Cohen Family Studio Theater 2009-10 series looks like a gift to theater and opera fans. The season marks the return of two hit debuts from last season: Transmigration, a festival or original student work, and Musicals Redux, the "lost musical" "Human Comedy" based on William Saroyan.

CCM opera department chair Robin Guarino has created a lineup of rarely produced work including a semi-staged "Les Mamelles de Tirésias," part of CCM's Fête Française festival.

Free performances are in the Cohen Family Studio theater unless otherwise noted:

Oct. 22 -24: "Hello Again." John LaChuisa freely adapts Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde" in a musical about 10 love affairs that connect through the 10 decades of the 20th century.

Nov. 5-7: "Orpheus Descending." Tennessee Williams' drama about a young, charismatic musician descending on a small, repressive Southern town.

Nov. 6-8: "Les Mamelles de Tirésias." Poulenc's surrealist two-act opéra bouffe about the battles of the sexes is set in the imaginary town called Zanzibar. Sung in French with projected English translations. Patricia Corbett Theater. Admission: $10, $5 non-UC students; free to UC students.

Feb. 4-6: "Falsettos." Ed Cohen and Dee Anne Bryll make their CCM directing debut with the William Finn/James Lapine 1992 Tony Award winner, about Marvin, a man who leaves his wife and young son to live with another man in the early years of AIDS.

Feb. 18-20: Transmigration: A Festival of Student Created New Works. Named for "the movement from one place to another" or "the transition from one state of being to another," 30-minute works are created by CCM Drama students and performed simultaneously in three different locations around CCM Village.

Mar. 5-7: Double Bill: "Idomeneo" / "Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda." "Idomeneo" is Mozart's first mature opera (he wrote it at 24.) Who is and why are the gods pursuing and punishing him? Analisa Pappano of Catacoustic Consort conducts, which suggests authentic instruments. "Il Combattimento" is Monteverdi's operatic conversation for three voices, based on an epic cycle from 1575. A Christian knight in the Holy Land fights a masked infidel.

Apr. 15-24: "Bury the Dead." Amid the grim tableau of a hopeless battle, six slain soldiers arise from their graves and refuse to be buried, inciting international intrigue and bringing to a grinding halt the seemingly mindless engine of war. CCM Drama, led by Michael Burnham, collaborates with the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington. Tickets $18, $14 students. 859-957-1940.

May 13-15: "Musicals Redux: Human Comedy." A coming-of-age tale about young Homer Macauley, a telegram messenger who is exposed to the sorrows and joys experienced by his family and the residents of his small California town during World War II.

May 28-30: "Die Fledermaus." Johann Strauss' waltzing opera about a philandering husband who pauses at a masked ball and is taken with a glamorous Hungarian countess.

Though free, tickets must be reserved at the CCM box office, 513-556-4183. They go on sale at noon Monday of performance week. Limit two tickets per order.