Saturday is Evan Kassof’s judgment day.
For more than a year, Kassof has been writing his own opera. On Saturday, the first act of his work will be unveiled as part of his senior composition recital.
The opera, “Judgment,” will be presented during his recital, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in the University Auditorium.
Kassof, who is majoring in both physics and music at UF, will first perform an unrelated composition called “Water Music” at the concert. Then the opera’s first act will begin.
Admission to the concert is free.
The opera’s performance will be entirely student-run. Graduate conducting assistant Lauren Kingry will direct the musicians, some of whom are members of the UF Chamber Music Society, a group for which Kassof serves as president.
The first act of the opera lays out Kassof’s story about John, an atheist who dies and must face the angels at heaven’s gates as his fate is decided.
John, Kassof said, is a good man who leaves behind a loving family in the wake of his death. The opera explores the question of whether one’s belief in God, or lack thereof, is an acceptable reason to judge a person.
Kassof was inspired to write the opera partly due to his own experiences as an atheist.
He said he knows many people who believe others will go to hell simply for their beliefs, rather than for the way they choose to live.
The opera explores what it means to banish someone to hell for his or her spiritual beliefs, whether that person is an atheist like the story’s main character or a follower of another religion, Kassof said.
“Is it right for us as people to say people are going to hell just because they’re atheist or something? … [It’s like,] ‘We’re best friends, and when we grow old and die, I’m going to go to Disney World and you’re going to go to Auschwitz,’” he said. “People try to reconcile their faiths on trivial issues, and no one tries to reconcile their faiths on this really horrible issue. Can I believe my best friend is going to suffer because they believe something different from me?”
“Judgment” explores these questions over the course of two acts.
Kassof selected the opera as his proposal for the University Scholars Program, which allows students to work on projects with UF faculty members if accepted.
He was chosen as a program participant for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years. He worked on the opera with Paul Richards, a UF professor in the School of Music who has written an opera before and who served as Kassof’s project mentor.
Kassof spent all of 2010 writing the first act. It is 120 pages long, and the second scene of the act alone includes 20,000 musical notes.
While Kassof is responsible for the music, UF English major Erica Kenick is responsible for the words.
Kenick wrote the libretto, or lyrics, for the first act and is currently writing the second act with Kassof as well.
Kassof and Kenick both play the cello and have been friends for a while. Kassof asked Kenick to write the lyrics because she had experience with creative writing as an English major.
“I’ve taken creative writing classes here — mostly poetry — and it’s kind of a mix between poetry and a movie script,” Kenick said of writing the libretto.
Kassof explained the plot of “Judgment” to Kenick. After she wrote the words, he set them to music.
“You have this one idea in your head of how you want it to be and how you want it to be presented,” Kenick said of the upcoming performance. “I’m curious to see what people think and if they were entertained by it.”
