Opera Pacific Serves Up an Italian Program : MusicConcert will feature arias, duets and choruses by Verdi, Puccini and others Sunday at the Irvine Bowl.

Opera Pacific returns to its roots--physically and figuratively--with “Festa Italiana,” a program of arias, duets and choruses by Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni and other Italian composers, Sunday evening at the Irvine Bowl.

Most local opera-lovers discovered Opera Pacific when the company seemed to emerge suddenly, full-blown, at the 1986 opening of the Orange County Performing Arts Center. But its history goes back much further, to its conception in 1960 as the Festival of Opera Assn. in Laguna Beach. Two years later, organizers presented their first season of operas--mostly Italian--at Irvine Bowl.

“For a lot of people, Italian opera is home turf, a comfort zone,” Opera Pacific Artistic Director John DeMain said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Madison, Wis. “As I really want to expand the repertory in coming years, this is a way of not abandoning this core repertory that people love.”

Sunday’s excerpts will range from the well-known (“La donna e mobile” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and “Nessum dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot”) to the less familiar (“Tu del mio Carlo” from Verdi’s “I Masnadieri” and the Quartet from Puccini’s “La Rondine”).

Performers include sopranos Paula Delligatti and Robin Follman, tenor Carlo Ventre and baritone Mark Delavan.

*

Because it will be an outdoor concert, the singers and orchestra members will use microphones, as is done at Hollywood Bowl and Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

DeMain said he wants to offer outdoor programs before every future season. “It’s a chance to take the opera company out of our home, which is the Performing Arts Center, which is our joy to be there, but at the same time, it’s exciting to be able to form a heightened awareness of Opera Pacific and to bring new friends to the company,” he said. “The evening is intended to be a party. I hope everyone has a wonderful time.”

* John DeMain conducts “Festa Italiana” at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Irvine Bowl, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. $20 to $75. (800) 346-7372.