Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, one of Europe’s most eminent and influential composers, will talk about his Dante-inspired multimedia opera La Commedia this coming Thursday, March 31, at 3 p.m. in the Margaret Comstock Concert Hall at the University of Louisville School of Music. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Andriessen, who teaches music composition at the Royal Conservatory at The Hague, Netherlands, is known for blending traditional operatic themes with less traditional elements such as electric guitars and American jazz to evoke a cinematic, instantly recognizable sound. La Commedia, Andriessen’s fourth opera and most ambitious creation, received the 2011 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and has been performed in excerpt by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and in full at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall.

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Photo: Courtesy University of Louisville