LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lake County Symphony will present its Fall Concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24, at Lakeport’s Soper Reese Theatre, with composers from the Romantic Era.

There will be music by Franz Schubert, Gioacchino Rossini, Jules Massenet and Leo Delibes, as well as a violin solo performance by symphony member Francine Passa.

Conductor/Musical Director John Parkinson opens the program with Gioacchino Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra Overture,” popularly known as “The Thieving Magpie,” an opera that is best known for its use of snare drums in the overture, opening the piece in an energetic and memorable way and evoking the image of the opera's main subject: a devilishly clever, thieving magpie.

Rossini (1792-1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas. He also wrote many other songs, including chamber music, piano pieces and sacred music.

He was very popular at a young age and set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from full-scale composition while still in his 30s, at the height of his popularity.

Next the symphony will play “Cortege De Bacchus” by Leo Delibes (1836-1891) from his “Sylvia” ballet suite. Delibes is best known for his operas/operettas and ballets and was the first to craft a full-length ballet score. He composed operas and vaudevilles for several years before collaborating with Ludwig (Leon) Minkus on his first ballet composition, “La Source,” achieving public recognition for this in 1866.

His later works “Coppelia” and “Sylvia” were considered key works in the development of modern ballet, in which the music had much greater importance than it had previously. His work was admired by “Swan Lake” composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; others, like American author Carl Van Vechten, saw Delibes’ contribution to ballet music as “revolutionary.”

“Overture in C Minor for String Quintet” by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) is the next selection. Composed in 1811 when he was 14, it was Schubert’s earliest chamber work.

The final selection in the first half of the program is a solo performance by violinist/symphony member Francine Passa, accompanied by the orchestra. She will play the beautiful and familiar “Meditation” from the opera, “Thais,” by Jules Massenet (1842-1912).

A French composer of the Romantic Era, Massenet composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, piano pieces, songs and other incidental music, but quickly became best known for his operas, writing more than 30 of them. Massenet had a good sense of the theater and of what would succeed with the Parisian public, and produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Following intermission, the orchestra plays Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor "Unfinished," a composition he started in 1822 but left with only two movements — though he lived for another six years.

This symphony is sometimes called the first Romantic symphony due to having many of the characteristics of Romantic era music. These include its orchestration and specific instrumental choices that are predictive of the later Romantic movement.

Music aficionados say Schubert's music neatly bridges the Classical and Romantic periods through its use of “lovely melodies, inventive scoring, and nature imagery, wedded to traditional classical forms while at the same time expanding them.”

Conductor Parkinson finishes the program with another Schubert piece: Overture in the Italian Style No. 2 in C Major, D. 591. In 1817, in response to the Italian craze sweeping Vienna, the 20-yr old Schubert wrote two “Overtures in the Italian Style.”

The second of these, “D. 591” is thought to best capture the essence of Gioacchino Rossini, who was hugely popular at the time.

Franz Schubert died at age 31, but left behind a vast collection of compositions, including more than 600 vocal works, seven complete symphonies, operas, and a large body of piano and chamber music.

While Schubert did not receive much public recognition while he was alive, today he is considered one of the greatest composers in the history of Western Classical music.

His music has appeared in several films, including Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940), Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” (1975), Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989), and Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011). His music continues to be widely performed.

Tickets for the 2 p.m. Fall Concert are $25 for general seating or $30 for premium seating and may be purchased on the Soper Reese website: https://www.soperreesetheatre.com.

LCSA members receive a $5 discount. Tickets are also available at the Soper Reese box office at 275 S. Main Street on the day of the concert. Please arrive 30 minutes prior to the show when buying tickets at the door.

The 11 a.m. dress rehearsal performance is just $5 for adults and free for those under the age of 18. Due to the popularity of this discounted performance, please arrive early to ensure a seat.