Oscar winner Estelle Parsons returns to Hartford for two performances of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's world premiere of Mrs. Mozart: A Play for Actors, Chorus and Orchestra, April 22-23. HSO musical director Michael Lankester created the stage work.

Based on notes discovered in Florence, Italy during World War II, Mrs. Mozart recreates an 18th century interview with Constanze, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's widow. The play will feature excerpts from Mozart's works.

Parsons, who plays the title role, made her Hartford debut in 1998 with Hartford Stage's production of Happy Days. She won an Oscar for "Bonnie and Clyde" and was nominated again for Paul Newman's "Rachel, Rachel". Other films include "Dick Tracy," "Boys on the Side," "That Darn Cat," and "Looking for Richard." She also played Roseanne's mother Bev on "Roseanne."

Lankester's other credits include the composition "Make Your Own Orchestra," a work that features homemade instruments and a concert version of "Peer Gynt" that received its world premiere with HSO and Christopher Plummer in 1993. Lankester conducted the premiere production of Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favor with music by Andre Previn. Lankester will end his fourteen-year tenure with Hartford Symphony Orchestra in June 2000.

Vocalists participating in the concert include soprano Mary Ellen Callahan and five Yale University opera program students: soprano Janna Baty, tenor Mark Calvert, bass baritone Thomas Dickison, baritone Maksim Ivannov and bass James Creswell. Tickets ($47-$15) are available by calling HSO ticket services at (860) 244-2999 or at the Bushnell at (860) 987-5900.

-- By Christine Ehren