Fort Worth Opera to host five-event JFK symposium
Before audiences see its new work, Fort Worth Opera wants to provide a little context.
“We want the opera company to be seen as going forward as a community resource for conversation and dialogue and not just a place where you come to hear pretty music — or, sometimes, disturbing music,” said Darren Woods, general director of Fort Worth Opera, explaining the motivation behind the company’s five-part symposium, “JFK: 5 Decades of Progress.”
The series will present panels of experts discussing events and issues of the 1960s in anticipation of JFK, the opera commissioned by Fort Worth Opera and New York’s American Lyric Theater, which will have its world premiere at Bass Hall on April 23, 2016. The recently completed work, which features music by David T. Little and a libretto by Royce Vavrek, focuses on the last night of President Kennedy’s life, which was spent in Fort Worth.
The first of the five events, “Space Race: Advances in U.S. Science and Transportation Technology,” will be presented on the University of Texas at Arlington campus Thursday. The series, which will offer events in Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas, concludes with a session devoted to the arts March 24. Most will feature three panelists and a moderator.
The topics addressed range from civil rights to Cuban-American relations. Woods said the common thread among the five events is that they all deal with matters “that JFK was passionate about.”
“Cuba was in the news [lately] with the opening of Cuba,” said Woods, explaining how the topics were chosen. “So we thought about the Cuban missile crisis 50 years ago, and so that one came up kind of generically.”
But Woods also emphasized that reasons for the symposium go beyond providing a remedial course in 1960s history.
We want the opera company to be seen as going forward as a community resource for conversation and dialogue and not just a place where you come to hear pretty music — or, sometimes, disturbing music.
Darren Woods
general director of Fort Worth Opera“The pure reason was to build more business and community partnerships, and build new audiences. We wanted to say to the public that whether you go or not, arts organizations can be relevant to your community and your own personal conversations,” said Woods.
To that end, Fort Worth Opera is joining forces with a number of civic and business organizations to present its symposium. Hillwood Properties is the official sponsor, with The Sixth Floor Museum, KERA, the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau, the UTA, the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce serving as official partners.
“We wanted to spread our wings a little bit and say we are not just a Fort Worth opera company. We feel we belong to all of North Texas,” Woods said.
As for the opera itself, Woods said the work is now finished and has already made an impression in some events teasing its content, including a recent one in New York held especially for travel writers.
“I am so thrilled with the piece. It is so rich. There are sections of great calm, and beautiful, melodic, real tunes that begin and end. So it is a real departure from anything they have done before,” Woods said of Little and Vavrek.
Symposia schedule
Here is a breakdown of the five events in the symposium. For more details about locations, visit www.fwopera.org.
“Space Race: Advance in U.S. Science and Transportation Technology”
- Date and time: Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m.
- Place: University of Texas at Arlington
- About: This panel will include Col. Walter Cunningham, who was an astronaut on the Apollo 7 mission, and Wendell Mendell, a retired NASA scientist and an instructor at the International Space University. Among the topics discussed will be whether President Kennedy was more concerned about space exploration for its own sake, or simply in beating the Russians at anything in the Cold War era.
“Civil Rights in Modern America”
- Dates and time: Nov. 18 and 19 at 6:30 p.m.
- Place: The Potter’s House (Dallas, Nov. 18); I.M. Terrel High School (Fort Worth, Nov. 19)
- About: Former Star-Telegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders will lead discussions of civil rights in America since the JFK administration.
“Cuba and Immigration”
- Date and time: Jan. 21, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.
- Place: TCC Trinity River Campus, Energy Auditorium
- About: U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Texas will take part in a discussion of JFK’s policies regarding Cuba and what the impact might be of the current thaw in Cuban-American relations.
“Journalism”
- Date and time: Feb. 18 at 6:30 p.m.
- Place: Seventh floor of The Sixth Floor Museum (Dallas)
- About: This panel, sponsored by public broadcaster KERA, will examine the evolution of news organizations over the past 50 years, with a particular emphasis on the coverage of tragedies such as the assassination of President Kennedy.
“The Arts: An Evening Dedicated to Ruth Carter Stevenson”
- Date and time: March 24 at 6:30 p.m.
- Place: Piano Pavilion of the Kimbell Art Museum
- About: The only symposium event that will include music, this panel will look at the impact of JFK as a champion of the visual and performing arts. The session is dedicated to the late philanthropist Ruth Carter Stevenson, who made sure the Kennedys had fine art from Fort Worth museums in their room at the Hotel Texas on the last night of the president’s life.
Admission is free for all the events in the symposium but, because seating may be limited, the opera recommends that patrons reserve a seat by calling 817-288-1229 or by visiting www.fwopera.org.
This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Fort Worth Opera to host five-event JFK symposium."