West Park Presbyterian Church presents a reading of a new and charming one act chamber opera based on a play by Federico Garcia Lorca with music by Samir Elias.

Described by Lorca as an erotic lace paper valentine in four scenes, PERLIMPLIN is an eighteenth century romantic tragedy with farcical overtones about an older man who weds a much younger woman and then seeks an original albeit sardonic way out of the unhappy union.

Composer Samir Elias, grew up in Heliopolis, Egypt, and studied in Paris at the Ecole Normale de Musique. Moving to America, Elias received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. A member of the Music Faculty of Adelphi University for a number of years, Mr. Elias has also composed many instrumental works, including Night Journey, a ballet, as well as numerous pieces for theater and dance. He has also been associated with groups such as the Paper Bag Players and The New Dance Group. Mr. Elias currently works with a singing group which he founded, continues to compose, and serves as organist at West Park Presbyterian Church.

PERLIMPLIN, his first opera, was composed for the Adelphi University Theater Department, where it enthusiastically received its premiere in 1989. The present production, which is a revised version of the original, may best be described as an eclectic and harmonically conservative composition that reflects the composer's extensive experience with dancers and singers.

The Opera's English translation by James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O'Connell, conveys the sparkle, freshness, and magic of the original Spanish.

The cast for the reading includes:

Gabrielle Firenze, mezzo soprano -- Elizabeth Spaeth, soprano -- Sachal Vasandani, baritone
Janet Briggs, alto -- Natalie Levin, soprano -- Victoria Weil, mezzo-soprano
Christine Locke, flute -- Dan Hobbs, pianist

The exact date of this concert is not known, but it occurred in the marked year around this time.