Most operas clock in at anything from 21/2 to 5 hours — especially if you’re Richard Wagner — and take weeks to put on, so how can a stable of eager singers get in their chance for a lead role? Also, how can the opera lover keep up with the evolving world of modern music when so few companies want to take a chance outside the standard canon of works? UCSB Opera Workshop’s “Opera Scenes,” this Saturday and Sunday, answers that need, with nine scenes from both obscure and well-known works.
A success last year, “Opera Scenes” returns for an evening that features selections from Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Die Zauberflute,” Seymour Barab’s “A Game of Chance,” Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride,” Donizetti’s “La fille du régiment,” Cimarosa’s “Il matrimonio segreto,” Verdi’s “Attila,” Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men,” and Offenbach’s “R.S.V.P.”