Poking fun at opera - with all due respect.

Byline: Paul Denison The Register-Guard

If someone invited you to a Mozart comic opera in which a villain named Captain Kadd kidnaps a sick man and his bed, a mute servant named Schlepporello demands a singing role, a treasure map leads to the Maltese Falcon and pirates sing a chorus with valkyries, you just might suspect that your leg was being pulled.

When you found out that the opera was set for April Fool's Day, you would know for sure.

This Friday, the Oregon Mozart Players will introduce conductor Glen Cortese's new concert version of "The Abduction of Figaro" by PDQ Bach, "a twig on the Bach family tree" whose obscure compositions have been rediscovered and championed by composer Peter Schickele.

Schickele has approved Cortese's stripped-down version for chamber orchestra and soloists, and he will come to Eugene to narrate the world premiere performance Friday in the Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall.

The original version, which Minnesota Opera premiered in 1984, was billed as a "simply grand opera" and had all the trappings: sets, costumes, recitatives and dance sequences.

Cortese's concert eliminates all of that boring stuff, leaving just the musicians, the singers and the hilarity in Schickele's spoof of W.A. Mozart's comic operas.

Although it's great fun, Cortese considers "The Abduction of Figaro" a "brilliant satire on classical opera that still shows us what is great about the art form."

Set in a seacoast town "in Spain or Italy or somewhere" at the time of Mozart's "Le nozze de Figaro," the PDQ opera opens at the palace of Count Alma Mater, where Figaro lies gravely ill, attended by his wife, Susanna Susannadanna, her servant, Pecadillo, and a doctor, Al Donfonso.

The madcap action begins when Captain Kadd pops up from a steamer trunk and hijacks Figaro's bed, with Figaro still in it. From that point, it gets complicated. Let's just say it involves a deserted island, harem girls, stolen jewels and a character who stoops to extortion in pursuit of his dream: to sing and tap dance an aria. Understandably so. Who wouldn't just kill for a chance to sing such songs as "Found a Peanut," "Fish Gotta Swim," "What a Downer," "You Can Beat Me" and "I Am a Swineherd."

Queuing up to sing such show stoppers - backed by the Oregon Mozart Players, plus ukelele, pedal steel guitar and electric guitar - are tenor Vale Rideout (Pecadillo), bass-baritone Brian Kontes (Al Donfonso, Pasha Shaboom and Papa Geno), soprano Marla Kavanaugh Kostantino (Blondie), mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider (Susanna Susannadanna and Mama Geno), baritone James Bobick (Donald Giovanni) and soprano Sarah Miller (Donna Donna).

And those are just the hired hands from out of town. Oregon singers on board for this trip include baritone Sandy Naishtat (Captain Kadd), countertenor Don Ebel (Opec) and tenor Marc Siegel (Schleporello).

Composer PDQ Bach was influenced by F.J. Haydn and Mozart, of course, but also, in a conveniently anachronistic way, by Stephen Foster, George Gershwin and rock 'n' roll hits.

"It has been said," Schickele has said, "that the only original pieces in his music are those places where he forgot what he was stealing."

PDQ's other tongue-in-cheek operas include "Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz," "Oedipus Tex," "The Magic Bassoon," "A Little Nightmare Music," "The Stoned Guest" and "Hansel & Gretel & Ted & Alice: An Opera in One Unnatural Act."

Schickele himself has composed more than 100 works, for symphony orchestras, choral groups, chamber ensembles, voice, movies and television.

"The man is amazing," Cortese says. "He is an extremely intelligent, thoughtful composer who blends great aspects of American culture into his serious music."

John Rockwell of the New York Times says Schickele has had "a leading role in the ever more prominent school of American composers who unselfconsciously blend all levels of American music."

But his fame, or notoriety, rests on his rediscovery and reconstruction of music by PDQ Bach, whom he describes fondly as "a pimple on the face of music" and "the most dangerous musician since Nero." CONCERT PREVIEW

The Abduction of Figaro

What: Oregon Mozart Players and numerous vocal soloists, conducted by Glen Cortese, perform the opera by PDQ Bach

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street

How much: $34, $28, $22 and $16 ($12 for students in kindergarten through grade 12); call 682-5000 or go to www.oregonmozartplayers.org