DuPage Symphony to celebrate ‘British Masters’
The DuPage Symphony Orchestra will celebrate travel and the “British Masters” when it performs in concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, in North Central College’s Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville.
“Songs of Travel” will feature soloist Jeffrey Ray, whose baritone voice will lead audience members on a bittersweet journey from the cradle to the grave.
Ray made his operatic debut in “Deutsche Oper” in Berlin in 1997 and also has appeared in the “Magic Flute” and “Madame Butterfly” and twice appeared at Carnegie Hall.
The symphony will open the evening with William Walton’s 1925 composition “Portsmouth Point Overture,” based on an etching by English artist Thomas Rowlandson.
Rowlandson’s 1811 drawing of the southern England port city is of a frenzy of activity, showing street musicians, drunken and carousing sailors, and dockworkers going about their business, with a backdrop of mercantile ships waiting to dock. Walton’s music catches the spirit of Rowlandson’s image.
The concert concludes with Sir Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” originally titled “Variations on an Original Theme, Opus 36,” a testament to the personalities, quirks and eccentricities of 13 of his friends, plus a final self-portrait of himself.
Single tickets for all shows may be purchased through the North Central Box Office at (630) 637-7469 or online at tickets.noctrl.edu. For details on the rest of the season, visit dupagesymphony.org.