Asheville Symphony Chorus, WCU Concert Choir, and soloists join the ASO for Handel’s masterwork.

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra will take on a large-scale Handel choral work with the Asheville Symphony Chorus and Western Carolina University Concert Choir in Handel’s Alexander’s Feast on Saturday, April 18, 2015. The concert starts at 8 p.m. at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.

ASO Music Director Daniel Meyer will lead almost 200 singers and musicians in Alexander’s Feast, Handel’s dramatic cantata. Soprano Kerri Caldwell, tenor William Ferguson and bass-baritone Adam Fry will join the performance as soloists.

Alexander’s Feast, composed in 1736, is one of Handel’s lesser-known works but is comparable to his beloved and frequently performed Messiah. Alexander’s Feast was an experimental work based on a narrative poem by one of England’s greatest poets of the preceding century, John Dryden (1631-1700). The aim of Dryden’s poem, a dedicatory ode to Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music and musicians, was to proclaim the power of music.

The plot harks back to reconstructed and romanticized ancient history with the main characters Alexander the Great (during the Persian war); Thaïs, a courtesan and Alexander’s “partner,” credited in history as having urged him to burn the Persian capital, Persepolis; and Timotheus, a musician whose art can manipulate the feelings of the king and his court. Although the poem is a third-person narrative, Handel uses the dramatic nature of the music to describe the actions of the characters.

Music Director Daniel Meyer says of the piece, “Alexander’s Feast is a musical party, as only Handel could imagine. A musical dramatist to his very core, Handel creates music that comes alive with soldiers boasting of their conquests, drinking and eating until they’ve had more than their fill, and of course, with the beautiful Thais within arm’s reach, love and lust reign supreme. I cannot wait to conduct the Asheville premiere of this amazingly vivid and life-embracing work and to share it with our audiences.”

Michael Lancaster directs both the Asheville Symphony Chorus and Western Carolina University’s Concert Choir. He is the director of choral activities in the School of Music at Western Carolina University, where he also conducts the University Chorus and Early Music Ensemble and teaches conducting and voice.

If You Go: Asheville Symphony performs Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 8 p.m. Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. Daniel Meyer, Music Director. The concert is sponsored by TD Bank.

Tickets range from $22 to $62 for adults and $11 to $43 for youth, and are available through the ASO office or the U.S. Cellular Center ticket office. For more information go to ashevillesymphony.org or call 828-254-7046.