David Del Tredici
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) will present the World Premiere of composer and Pulitzer Prize winner David Del Tredici’s ‘Dum Dee Tweedle’, a setting of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ on Saturday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. ‘Dum Dee Tweedle’ is both the largest and the last of Del Tredici’s body of work dedicated to the Alice stories and the composer’s only opera.
Written in 1995, ‘Dum Dee Tweedle’ has never been performed in its entirety. Though it was written during a time of great sorrow in the composer’s life – his partner was losing his battle with the AIDS virus – the opera is notably happy in nature with fast tempos. Del Tredici describes this piece as his ‘consolation’ at the time. « I didn’t realize it then but it makes sense now,” he said. “Writing the opera cheered me up. »
Among the artists performing this piece include Hila Plitmann (soprano), Re’ut Ben-Ze’ev (mezzo soprano), Scott Ramsay (tenor), Michael Kelly (baritone), and Alexandra Silber (narrator), with the WSU Symphonic Choir.
The concerts will also feature a solo performance by DSO Concertmaster Yoonshin Song in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with DSO Music Director Leonard Slatkin conducting.
The Sunday, December 1 performance will be webcast live to a global audience via the DSO’s Live From Orchestra Hall series of HD webcasts. The broadcast will begin at 3 p.m. (EST) and will include pre-concert and intermission interviews. Live From Orchestra Hall is viewable by logging on to dso.org/live or via DSO to Go, the DSO’s free mobile app.
