Cricketina, a new children's opera with music by Kristine H. Burns and a libretto by Lynne Barrett, will debut at the Florida International University Music Festival Nov. 15, 2003 with two performances (11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) at F.I.U.'s University Park Campus. Directed by Robert B. Dundas and staged by the F.I.U.. Opera Theater, the production will be performed by students and recent graduates of the F.I.U. Opera Theater program.

The performances will take place in VH 100 (Viertes Haus 100), where seating is limited to 150. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and children, and may be purchased by calling the box office, 305-348-1998.

Cricketina offers a delightful story of fantasy, comedy, and drama with music in forms both traditional and contemporary. The story and setting will appeal to kids 8 and up, the language and music will divert both adults and their offspring. Cricketina is a poor young seamstress who is magically and mysteriously transformed into a cricket and finds in the cottage of a lovelorn Giantess the members of a court who have also been enchanted into a boastful rooster, a flock of discontented hens, a highly political (and jazzy) cat, and a valiant but nervous mouse determined to reverse the spell. A violent solution fails, but Cricketina's skill saves all in an opera for children ages 8 to 80 that explores change and ways to respond to it.

Lynne Barrett is the award-winning author of The Secret Names of Women and The Land of Go and co-editor of Birth: A Literary Companion. Kristine H. Burns is Director of the Electronic Music Studios at the Florida International University School of Music. Burns' scores and recordings are published and distributed by Tuba-Euphonium Press, Frogpeak Music, and Seeland Records. Her book Women and Music in the US Since 1900: an Encyclopedia (2002) was released by Greenwood Press. Both are professors at Florida International University.