Opera and DeKalb rarely go hand-in-hand — except for this weekend.

The Opera Theatre will perform 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday in the Music Building’s Recital Hall.

The 45-minute performance features nine scenes from multiple operas, including “La Bohème,” “La Traviata” and “Die Fledermaus.” The scenes will be performed by eight undergraduate and graduate vocal music students from the School of Music.

Opera Theatre employees prepare music students for opera and musical performances on stage by teaching role preparation, acting techniques, stage movements and effective auditioning skills, according to the department’s website.

The students involved in the Opera Theatre program have spent the fall semester rehearsing scenes for the performances. The students meet twice a week for three hours and rehearse music and blocking.

Performing scenes from operas allows students exposure to music they might not know.

“By doing the scenes program, it gives us the opportunity to learn more about the operas that we, as musicians, may perform in later on in our careers,” said Brittany Anderson, junior vocal performance major.

Anderson said each student is cast in at least two scenes. Despite the quick scene changes, students will perform in full costumes for each scene.

“It’s better to perform in costumes because it helps the performers and the audiences get into the scenes that we are performing,” Anderson said. “If we are just wearing neutral black clothing for each scene, it doesn’t give the same effect.”

The student performers are looking forward to finally performing their scenes in front of an audience this weekend.

“Performing is important to us because we’ve spent eight weeks rehearsing the music, and now we’re ready to perform,” said junior music major Ryan Fry. “It’s an opportunity for us to practice our performing skills, too.”

For graduate students, the Opera Theatre performances offer additional practice and exposure to opera.

“As graduate students, we’re in the middle of being students and becoming professional performers,” said Chris Joyner, graduate music performance major. “So being in the opera gives us a chance to keep practicing or performing. We also get to learn more about different operas, so it’s an educational experience, as well.”

The Opera Theatre scenes performance is directed by Lucia Matos and Anthony Perrella Jr.