Program Notes | Disney’s Fantasia in Concert
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Program
Constantine Kitsopoulos conductor
New Jersey Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
I. Allegro con brio
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastorale”
III. Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute
IV. Gewitter, Sturm (Thunderstorm)
V. Hirtengesang, frohe und dankbare
VI. Gefühle nach dem Sturm
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a
II. Characteristic Dances
b. Danse de la fée-dragée
e. Danse chinoise
f. Danse des mirlitons
d. Danse arabe
c. Danse de la fée-dragée
III. Valse des fleurs
Claude Debussy/Leopold Stokowski Claire de Lune
III. Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute
Igor Stravinsky Firebird Suite (1919)
Ronde des princesses
Danse infernale du roi Kastcheï
Berceuse – Finale
Intermission
Amilcare Ponchielli “Dance of the Hours” from La Gioconda
Paul Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Sir Edward Elgar/Peter Schickele Pomp and Circumstance (Nos. 1, 2, 3 & 4)
Ronde des princesses
Ottorino Respighi Pines of Rome
I. Pines of the Villa Borghese
III. Pines of the Janiculum
IV. Pines of the Appian Way
Camille Saint-Saëns/Bruce Coughlin Finale from Carnival of the Animals
Disney’s Fantasia in Concert Live to Film features highlights from two of Disney’s most extraordinary and groundbreaking animated features, Fantasia (1940), and its sequel Fantasia 2000 (1999).
Classical selections include Beethoven’s “The Pastoral Symphony,” Debussy’s “Clair de Lune, Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours,” Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance,” Respighi’s “Pines of Rome,” and Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” and more.
Released to great acclaim in 1940, Walt Disney’s Fantasia was his boldest experiment at the time and culminated in the creative visionary’s desire to blend animated imagery with classical music. The original recording of the film’s score was conducted by Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra, captured in stereophonic sound, which was still an experimental medium at the time. What had begun as a vehicle to develop Mickey Mouse’s career with an animation short titled “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” went on to become a genuine cinema classic.
Walt’s dream in 1941 was to turn Fantasia into an ongoing event with new segments. This was finally realized in 1999 with Fantasia 2000, a spectacular follow-up spearheaded by Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney. The recorded score from Fantasia 2000 was conducted by James Levine and performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Artist Bio
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Artist Bio: Constantine Kitsopoulos, conductor
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Constantine Kitsopoulos has established himself as a dynamic conductor known for his ability to work in many different genres and settings. Equally at home with opera, symphonic repertoire, film with live orchestra, music theater, and composition, his engagements have led him to conduct worldwide, appearing with major orchestras in North America as well as the Hong Kong and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestras.
The 2025–26 season includes Kitsopoulos’s return to the New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony, among others. In the past two seasons he has also returned to The Philadelphia Orchestra and Pacific, New Jersey, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco symphony orchestras, as well as the New York Philharmonic. Past highlights have also included appearances with the Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Phoenix, New Jersey, San Francisco, Houston, Toronto, and Vancouver symphony orchestras.
Kitsopoulos served as music director of the Festival of the Arts Boca (2010–23), general director of Chatham Opera (2005–15), and assistant chorus master at New York City Opera 1984–89). He has developed semi-staged productions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (for which he has written a new translation) and Don Giovanni, and Puccini’s La bohème. He conducted Indiana University Opera Theater’s productions of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Bernstein’s MASS and Candide, Verdi’s Falstaff, J. Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, William Bolcolm’s A View from the Bridge, Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific and Oklahoma, Willson’s The Music Man, and Menotti’s The Last Savage.
On Broadway, Kitsopoulos has been music director of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (cast album on PS Classics), Harvey Fierstein and John Buccino’s A Catered Affair (cast album on PS Classics), Adrian Sutton’s music for Coram Boy, Baz Luhrmann’s production of La bohème (cast album on DreamWorks Records), Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Misérables. He was music director of ACT’s production of Weill / Brecht’s Happy End and conducted its only English-language recording for Sh-K-Boom Records.
Constantine Kitsopoulos studied piano with Marienka Michna, Chandler Gregg, Edward Edson, and Sophia Rosoff. He studied conducting with Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Commissiona, Gustav Meier, and his principal teacher, Vincent La Selva.