It's quite possible that folks in Los Angeles or Manhattan get a bit jaded by the "world premiere" entertainment events that happen routinely in their zip codes.

On Wednesday, though, in the auditorium at Lyme-Old Lyme High School, the first-ever performance of a choral fantasy called "Anthony's Cosmic Adventures" should resonate on a variety of emotional and artistic levels that would make Hollywood proud - or possibly even jealous.

The production, with music by Waterford's John Metz based on poet Frederick Winsor's collection of children's verse called "A Space Child's Mother Goose," will be performed by the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Choirs as part of their Winter Concert program titled "Out Of This World." The piece is one of several works on the bill - all of which is under the direction of Kristine Pekar, chairperson and choral director at the school.

There are many scintillating plot lines behind "Anthony's Cosmic Adventures" - not the least of which is that, although the 71-year-old Metz is a virtuoso pianist/harpsichordist, a long-time music professor at Arizona State University, and for several years was the director of the Connecticut Early Music Festival in New London, this work is one of his first actual compositions.

"All my time and energy was spent teaching and at the Early Music Festival, and I was just totally immersed," Metz says. "I don't regret waiting to compose because I loved what I was doing. So it wasn't until after retirement that I had the time - although it's something I've always been curious about. In fact, I took a composition course in college and later studied with Yehudi Wyner at Yale."

After retirement, Metz's first writing efforts concerned a 17th-century French vocal work called "Noel Noel Glad Tidings to Tell," for which he rewrote the original arrangement for a larger chamber group with additional text. "When I finished," he says, "I thought it was kind of fun and that maybe I should try to write something from scratch."

Several shorter works followed - some choral and some instrumental pieces, and some serious and others more lighthearted - because he wanted to see "if I had the chops to do this on a larger scale."

He did.

As inspiration for what would become the multi-part 20-minute "Cosmic Adventure," Metz reached back to his 1950s childhood and indelible memories of Winsor's verses, which reimagined classic elements of Mother Goose through the interstellar prism of science fiction, infusing elements of elastic mathematics, telekinesis, Moebius strips and Klein bottles, multi-dimensional space-folds, relativity and much more. As perhaps required by such an ambitious story, Metz's music is at once eclectic, imaginative and spans several styles.

"The whole idea was stimulating and cool and the subject matter - the poems - gave me so many ideas," Metz says. "You start realizing the variety and also the words suggest melodyand different styles for each section of text - and then you start weaving them together. I targeted it knowing it should be for high school students or maybe some collegiate program would be interested."

Metz went to an office supply store and had dozens of copies made of the completed work, then sent them all over the area to various high school music programs in what was essentially a cold-call sales approach. "And, yes," he says with a smile, "I knew it was a long shot that someone would respond."

Intrigued by subject matter

Kristine Pekar was one of the folks who received a copy from that initial mailing. At the time, she was extremely busy with classwork and productions and put it aside. But she did take note of it. Later, Metz showed up at a school concert in May and introduced himself and watched the performance.

"John took the time to come here and see the groups and said he thought the chorus could (pull off the work)," Pekar says. "He took the time to come here and see the groups and I thought, 'I'm going to take another look at this.'"

An admitted science fiction fanatic, Pekar was intrigued by the subject matter and the idea that Metz had arranged it for chorus. She read the poetry first and then started to look at the music and started to get excited by the sophistication and variety of components.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, here's a chromatic scale and the singers have to sing it; this is the whole tone scale and they have to sing that!' There were double sharps and double flats and dissonance all over the place - and yet there are standard chordal structures and just these moments when the poetry goes astray from the original Mother Goose and so does the music. It was all so united," she says.

Pekar also was sold because the experience would provide her students with an opportunity to learn and perform material typically not associated with high school chorus.

"It's very educational the way it ties into physics and math and goes way outside the musical box," she says. "A lot of these kids are in advanced placement chemistry and physics and math courses and they're making connections with these subjects in ways they've never thought of before. It's brought a whole new realm to them. Before, they were passionate about one area and another - and now the lines get blurred."

Pekar's instincts about her students responding to the piece were spot on.

"I do like the music," says junior Jason Feng, a tenor in the chorus. "There are so many elements in it that are not part of normal choral music. Just doing the classical, traditional repertoire that we have in the catacombs, we'd never experience what Dr. Metz included."

Pekar knew that assimilating, rehearsing and staging the production would be arduous and a long process, and started her own lesson plans and breaking down the material last summer. Given that her students would have other productions to work on over the course of the semester, she began teaching them selected sections of "Anthony" at parsed-out times early in the semester. Finally, after a production in late October, the choirs' focus went full time on the winter concert and the Metz piece.

Late in the summer, after "Anthony's Cosmic Adventures" was officially booked and on the drawing board, there was a development that added an additional sense of urgency.

Metz was diagnosed with stage-four prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone.

'The stakes just got raised'

Last week, standing on a conductor's platform inside a large, rectangular, brightly lit rehearsal room on the second floor of Lyme-Old Lyme High School, Pekar led a rehearsal of the 40-plus choir students who will perform the piece Wednesday. Time's getting tight, but the mood was relaxed. Various cherry-picked sections of the work were sung with precision and excitement and, in between, though comments and discussion were quiet and business-like, there was a sense of excitement and fun in the room. Clearly, it's all coming together.

Behind a piano on Pekar's left was accompanist Molly Sturges. And, seated next to her in a chair, tapping his foot in time and helpfully turning the pages of the sheet music, was Metz.

He's been a frequent participant in the rehearsals over the course of the semester insofar as his chemo treatments and health regimen allows. This day, with a constant smile on his face, he chimed in with occasional suggestions or answered questions from Pekar or students.

It's pretty rare that the composer of a choral work is on hand for rehearsals, and Pekar and her students are adamant that having Metz as a regular presence has been a bonus.

"I was very intimidated by him at first," says senior alto Hannah Wilczewski. "Then we met him and he was so nice and he's always smiling. He has very positive comments and whatever criticisms he has are to enhance the overall quality of the work. It's made us want to show him we're the best option to do this piece."

Pekar admits that Metz's illness added an element of urgency to the production, but in a positive way. "When I heard he was terminally ill I said, 'OK, the stakes just got raised.' I wondered if it was too much pressure for the students, but they're gonna have times in their lives when they are in similar situations and what better time than now when I can be a go-between. It's not a great situation but a very powerful and meaningful situation."

Indeed, in conversation, members of the chorus are as respectful and somber about Metz's diagnosis as they are resolute to deliver a magical performance. Senior soprano Katie Judy put it in context when she said of Wednesday night, "It will be almost bittersweet because it will be over and I don't want it to be over. I love it. But I want Dr. Metz to have the biggest smile on his face and be ecstatic because we did this right."

Pekar says she keeps thinking about the unique qualities of the whole journey. "I think I'm going to feel like I did something I've never done before and I don't know if the students will ever experience again. We made someone's dream come true and gave John a moment that he never thought was possible. We helped him create something new and something so different and something of so much value - and now it's out there for all the world to share."

As for the composer, Metz is steadfast about future plans. He wants to make a short video proposal that will include teasing samples of the Lyme-Old Lyme presentation that he hopes will intrigue other chorus directors.

He is also deeply touched and grateful for the work that's been done by Pekar and her students and regards it as a special moment in his career.

"I'm not a believer in heaven and hell," he says thoughtfully. "I very much believe what you leave behind is a legacy. I know I don't need ("Anthony"). I think my students around the world will attest to that. I don't need this or any of my recordings as legacy."

He smiles and nods happily, "Hot damn, though, it's been really great to have something like this - creative and sparkling - but I'm not finished composing ... or decomposing!"

r.koster@theday.com

Twitter: @rickkoster