A New Twist For Lyric Opera Of Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Lyric stage has seen Aida, Lohengrin and Faust.

And now comes a Mariachi Opera, premiering April 7.

Lyric director Anthony Freud acknowledges it will be different from the European orchestras familiar to most opera goers.

He says the classic mariachi is made up of six violins, three trumpets on one each of three types of guitars.

But Freud says the effect is the same: the full spectrum of human emotions in word and song.

The mariachi opera will be a world first, when the Lyric presents Cruzar La Cara de la Luna--To Cross The Face Of the Moon on April 7 at the Civic Opera House.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's John Cody Reports