O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Why does no one play your music?

It is well-crafted. It has heart. It is full of beauty.

On the 99th birthday of Romeo Cascarino, I am asking, is there no one out there who might be able to program something to mark the composer’s centenary in 2022?

Cascarino was born into a rough neighborhood in South Philadelphia in 1922. With a name like Romeo, you have to learn how to use your fists! While navigating the School of Hard Knocks, he taught himself privately, gleaning the mechanics of music theory from books checked out of the Free Library of Philadelphia. He was discovered by composer Paul Nordoff, who recognized his genius, and the two became more like friends than master-disciple.

For many years, Cascarino was a professor of composition at Combs College of Music. The recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, he labored at his magnum opus, the opera “William Penn,” for the better part of three decades. The work received its premiere at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music in 1982 to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city.

Metropolitan Opera singer bass-baritone John Cheek sang the title role, Cascarino’s wife, soprano Dolores Ferraro, created the part of Penn’s wife, Gulielma, and Christofer Macatsoris conducted the Philadelphia Singers and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia.

Cascarino died in 2002, at the age of 79. He left too little music. Fortunately, every piece is a treasure. A seductive, twilit beauty informs much of his output. If only he had completed “William Penn” 30 years earlier, I believe it would be as highly-regarded as Carlisle Floyd’s “Susanna” or Robert Ward’s “The Crucible.”

Here’s hoping for a Cascarino revival, however modest, in 2022.

“Pygmalion,” conducted by JoAnn Falletta

“The Acadian Land,” performed by members of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia

The concise Bassoon Sonata, written for Cascarino’s Army buddy, Sol Schoenbach, for twenty years principal bassoonist of The Philadelphia Orchestra

“Blades of Grass” for English horn and orchestra, after Carl Sandburg, performed by Orchestra 2001

“Little Blue Pigeon,” from “Pathways of Love,” sung by Dolores Ferraro

“Meditation and Elegy,” inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee,” performed by Philadelphia Sinfonia

Bruce Duffie interviews the composer

http://www.kcstudio.com/cascarino2.html

A list of his works

https://romeocascarino.org/list_of_works.html