Classical Music Humor

Sarasota Orchestra Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero leads a seventy-five-minute exploration of orchestral comedy at the Sarasota Opera House. Playing without an intermission, the program highlights the clever tricks, unexpected pauses, and inside jokes composers have hidden within their scores. The repertoire includes Mozart’s intentionally clunky "A Musical Joke" and the frantic, lighthearted energy of Rossini’s overture to "The Barber of Seville." Pianist Terrence Wilson joins the ensemble for Michael Daugherty’s "Le Tombeau de Liberace," a flashy, demanding tribute to the legendary Las Vegas showman that proves classical composition can embrace pure, unadulterated camp.