It’s not too late to get your tickets for tonight’s world premiere of Jake Heggie’s “Ahab Symphony” expanding on ideas the composer explored in his critically acclaimed 2010 Dallas Opera world premiere, “Moby-Dick.” The new work, written for the UNT Symphony Orchestra and featuring the UNT Grand Chorus and tenor soloist Richard Croft, will be presented at 8 p.m. in Winspear Hall (not to be confused with the Winspear Opera House) at the Murchison Performing Arts Center in Denton.
The first movement, “Dawn,” is heavily influenced by the opera. The second movement, “The Wind,” inspired by the challenges faced by both the character Ahab and Herman Melville, “explores the eternal battle of man versus nature, and the inherent powerlessness and frustration of this conflict. This leads to an aching third movement, ‘The Narrow Balcony,’ and a fourth movement, ‘The Pieces,’ that takes a tone of yearning simplicity and resignation.” Or so says the UNT media release.
Any way you slice it, it’s bound to be a pulse-pounding, seafaring evening; the program opens with several salty works by Mendelssohn and Britten. Here’s more from Classical Music Critic Scott Cantrell of “The Dallas Morning News.”
Suzanne Calvin, Manager/Director Media and PR