- The flourishing genre of the comic opera had it's roots in18th c. Italian opera buffa, whose irrepressible brio was soontaken up outside the country's borders.- In France it produced opera comique and operetta, andin German-speaking countries Spieloper and Vienneseoperetta.- Some of the world's most popular comic opera overtures,filled with gorgeous tunes, brilliant orchestration and raceto-the-finish endings, are presented here.- They include staples of the concert repertoire such asHerold's dramatic Zampa, the textual delicacy of Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna and the vivid color ofLortzing's Zar und Zimmermann.- The American Conductor, Boston University graduate andmulti-first prize competition winner Lance Friedel, hereconducting the RNSO, currently enjoys an active career inEurope and the US.