American Classical Orchestra’s ‘Romantic Fantasy’ features Fil-Am baritone Enrico Lagasca

American Classical Orchestra’s final concert this season features baritone Enrico Lagasca and violinist violinist Rachell Ellen Wong. CONTRIBUTED

NEW YORK — Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford leads the American Classical Orchestra in its final concert this season on Thursday, May 18, at Alice Tully Hall: an evening of Romantic music by Rossini, Schumann, Sarasate, and Grieg, played on period instruments.

The program features Filipino American baritone Enrico Lagasca, critically acclaimed for his role as Daedalus in the U.S. premiere of Jonathan Dove’s opera The Monster in the Maze, and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient violinist Rachell Ellen Wong. The program will begin with a brief presentation by Thomas Crawford.

Romantic Fantasy

Thursday, May 18, 2023, at 8 p.m., Alice Tully Hall

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin
Enrico Lagasca, bass-baritone
Rossini: William Tell Overture
Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38 “Spring Symphony” Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25
Grieg: The Mountain Thrall, Op. 32

Rossini’s William Tell Overture was inspired by German playwright Friedrich Schiller’s 1804 drama about the 14^th century Swiss hero William Tell, and premiered in Paris in 1829 as the intro to the last of the composer’s 39 operas for TV and radio’s popular Lone Ranger series.

Written in 1841, Schumann’s Spring Symphony may have been inspired by Adolph Böttger’s poem Frühlings-und Liebesmelodien (Melodies of Spring and Love). Accordingly, the opening brass fanfare seems to herald the first days of spring. Spanish composer and violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate’s popular Carmen Fantasy, based on Bizet’s opera, stands as a testament to his prodigious skills. It will be performed on period violin by the internationally acclaimed artist Rachell Ellen Wong, and a founding member of the NYC-based New Amsterdam Concert, a period-instrument string ensemble specializing in music from the Renaissance to the High Baroque.

The program concludes with Grieg’s The Mountain Thrall (Den Bergtekne) featuring bass- baritone Enrico Lagasca, whose 2022-23 season includes an appearance in Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (afterlight) directed by Peter Sellers at the Park Avenue Armory. The work—composer’s longest orchestral song—is based on an old Norse poem about a man who, while lost in the mountains, is lured to his death by the Erl-King’s daughter. Like much of Grieg’s opus, this work is deeply infused with folk-music of his Norwegian homeland.

Tickets, priced at $75, $55, and $35 are available at aconyc.org or by calling ACO at 212.362.2727, ext. 4. Ticket holders will need to comply with the venue’s health and safety requirements, which can be found here.