The sounds of Louis Armstrong’s trumpet and signature voice will ring throughout the French Quarter this weekend at the Satchmo SummerFest, but some renditions might not sound so familiar. Tonight, Opera on Tap, the barhopping opera group, is taking Armstrong’s music where it has never been before – into the world of opera.

The question is how to take Armstrong’s world of jazz and create opera pieces that are worthwhile while honoring the New Orleans icon. Todd Simmons, Executive Director of the New Orleans Opera Association, believes that isolating the music from the man is the best way to pay tribute. “We’re not trying to re-do it in any manner, not at all, because you can’t do that,” Simmons says. “We’re trying to do it in our own unique way.”

He points out that by taking the songs made famous by Armstrong and transforming them to fit the opera group’s style is actually mimicking the philosophy displayed by Satchmo himself. “What’s interesting is most of the music of Louis Armstrong wasn’t his to begin with. ‘Basin Street Blues’ was a Spencer Williams song; ‘St. Louis Blues’ was a W.C. Handy song.”

The venues at which Opera On Tap performs – Inn on Bourbon, Rusty Nail, Abita Brew Pub, Ponchartrain Vineyards – provide an intimate atmosphere that no other opera performance space allows. “They’re all in really relaxed atmospheres and they’re very interactive with the audience as well. We’re not up there 50 feet from you on the stage; we’re right there in your lap, basically.”

Armstrong’s greatest works will be performed opera-style by three native New Orleanian performers: Kathleen Halm, soprano, Givonna Joseph, mezzo-soprano, and Tyler Smith, tenor. The performance begins at 7 p.m. tonight at the Inn on Bourbon; it’s free and open to the public.