Joseph Haydn’s masterwork, “The Creation,” will be performed by the UC Davis University Chorus with the Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, Dec. 9. Jeffrey Thomas, Barbara K. Jackson Professor of Music and director of the American Bach Soloists, will conduct.

An anonymous English poet and Baron Gottfried van Swieten wrote “The Creation” based on the book of “Genesis” from the Old Testament and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”

The performance will feature guest soloists Suzanne Karpov, soprano, singing the angel Gabriel and Eve; Nils Brown, tenor, singing the angel Uriel; and Thomas Meglioranza, baritone, singing the angel Raphael and Adam.

“In his grand oratorio, ‘The Creation,’ Haydn gave us a thoroughly enjoyable work that is colorful, imaginative, and tremendously satisfying,” said Thomas. “The musical depictions of the creation of elements of nature—storms, lightning, thunder, hail, rain, and snow—and living things—birds and fowl, lions and tigers, horses and cattle, even insects and worms—are nothing short of delectable. Brilliant orchestral representations of the creation of the planet and the first rising of the sun are paired with choruses so magnificent that they are at the top of the list of favorites among choral singers. This is some of the most delightful music that one can hear in a concert hall.”

“The last time the chorus and orchestra performed Haydn’s ‘Creation’ it was in Freeborn Hall in celebration of the Mondavi Center being, well, created,” said Philip E. Daley, event manager for the Department of Music. “It will be very special for those of us that were there at the Freeborn Hall performance to see Haydn’s particularly creative work come to life in the Mondavi Center nearly two decades later.”

The concert takes place in the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and youth and are available at the Mondavi Center box office in person or by calling 530-754-2787 during 12-6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Tickets are also available online at http://mondaviarts.org.

For more information about the College of Letter and Science’s Department of Music and future performances, visit http://arts.ucdavis.edu/music.