Boston-based composer Oliver Caplan chose three poems of Ruth Kessler’s for his new choral work, Eve Absinthe Alice, commissioned by the New Hampshire Master Chorale for premiere performances on November 19 and 20, 2016. The poems are among 17 depicting women from myth, art and literature, published under the title Fire Ashes Wings. Eve – the mother of us all, Genesis tells us – tastes a forbidden fruit that awakens a world of knowledge. Addressing Posterity, she rues the bla

The opening program of the New Hampshire Master Chorale’s 14th season is all about women. There are choral settings of poems written from a woman’s point of view; songs about mythical, fictional and historical women; and pieces by female composers. The program is called “Eve, Absinthe, Alice” after its centerpiece – a new choral work commissioned by the Master Chorale that will receive its world premiere on November 19 at 8 p.m. at the Eagle Square Atrium in Concord and Novem