ACCLAIM
IN THE NEWS.
"A good bass in Messiah is crucial, and Tafelmusik hit the jackpot with Filipino-American bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca. What a voice! His sound in “Why do the nations” was huge and commanding, with plenty of gravitas. I was only half joking when I said to my concert companion that Lagasca has an oratorio voice that strikes fear of God in the hearts of the audience."
LUDWIG VAN TORONTO
"The emotional apex of the performance came immediately after the death of Jesus with bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca’s singing of ‘Mache dich, mein Herze rein’. It is one of the wonders of the St. Matthew Passion how Bach expressed the meaning of the simplest of texts, often childlike in their directness and innocence, in music so profound. Lagasca’s singing of the many repetitions of ‘Ich will Jesus selbst begraben’ in the aria, accompanied by the plaintive sounds of two oboe da caccia, was an outpouring of devotion and grief as elegant as it was moving."
SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL
"BEAUTIFUL SOUND"
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"This new version is completely convincing; as is the sheer joy exuded by the bass aria “Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder!” with bass soloist Enrico Lagasca in fine form, with zero smudging to his melismas; Lagasca shines again towards the end in his aria, 'Mache dich, mein Herze, rein.'"
FANFARE
" Filipino-American bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca was commanding. From the very first-time bass-baritone Lagasca opened his mouth, it was a force of nature. Hearty is too light a word to describe his ringing, commanding tone. His low notes are in his toes, while he also displayed a surprising high register as well. He whipped through “Why do the nations so furiously rage together” at whirlwind speed, and when he sang “I will shake the heav’ns…”, you knew he meant business."
LUDWIG VAN TORONTO
"WARM BASS OF ENRICO LAGASCA"
GRAMOPHONE
"Enrico Lagasca’s booming, sumptuous voice endowed the role of Jesus with a larger-than-life, imposing presence, at times thunderous, at times enigmatic. Lagasca gave us a commanding Jesus whose soft utterings on the cross as he addressed Mary and the disciple, expressed his thirst and ended with “Es ist vollbracht,” sounded even more haunting by contrast."
WOMAN AROUND TOWN
"Jesus, standing aside from the throng, was sung by Enrico Lagasca, whose smooth, dark bass voice was atmosphere in itself. At Blachly’s tempos, Lagasca amazed with his breath control, particularly given Pärt’s long lines, many of which end on a lift of a third sung pianissimo. And his way with the text was just what was needed for this holy part."
CLASSICS TODAY
"Filipino-American bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca blew the audience away with his emphatic, authoritative and expressive solos that resonated throughout the church. The audience applauded enthusiastically for him at the end of the performance. His most powerful aria was when he joined with trumpeter Kris Kwapis, playing a trumpet designed after a 1746 German instrument, and sang “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible… .” He rolled with the trumpet and loved every moment of it. The solo was nothing short of triumphant, even with a bit of daring decoration on the word, “trumpet.”"
OREGON ARTS WATCH
"Bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca summoned the darkness from the rich core of his voice to contrast with his luminous vocal inflections that rendered some of his phrases iridescent as he weaved a musical spell, ensnaring the listeners into the story’s fatal course. Lagasca succeeded in conveying the tantalizing play between light and darkness through velvety tones and mesmerizing dynamic modulations as the song’s character longs for the joy of love and dance and the comfort of home but he encounters the Erlking daughter’s and the elf maidens’ empty, chilling embraces that lead him to his destruction. Accessing an impressive palette of subtle colors and displaying flawless pronunciation, Lagasca created an otherworldly, anguishing mood of an achingly slow and uncanny deathly heartbreak that haunted the imagination long after the concert."
WOMAN AROUND TOWN
"Mr. Lagasca’s solo was most impressive. His voice has a deep, warm, rich quality further enhanced by expressive facial and hand movements."
MD THEATRE GUIDE
"STENTORIAN BASS"
SOUTH FLORIDA CLASSICAL REVIEW
"In BWV 91 we heard Enrico Lagasca’s stentorian bass-baritone declaim the recitative “O Christenheit!” with awe-inspiring command."
SAN DIEGO STORY
"Lagasca expressively conveyed the essence of Den Bergtekne, utilizing his rich, resonant qualities with warmth and flexibility. With clarity, vocal control, and a commanding stage presence, Lagasca evoked the majestic, awe-inspiring images of Grieg’s Norwegian mountainscape. We experienced conflict, tragedy, and Romantic idealism. Lagasca evoked the music’s sense of yearning for freedom, the pursuit of dreams, aspirations, and the desire for adventure."
THE FRONT ROW CENTER
"In a forward baritone with more than a little Fischer-Dieskau ache in it, Enrico Lagasca gave a dramatic portrayal of the traveler lured to his doom by an elf princess, while low strings loomed like the “Elfstones” of the poem."
NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW
"...impressive was bass Enrico Lagasca, whose deep, dark instrument carried the weight of Quonuiam tu solas Sanctus."
SUPERCONDUCTOR
"…exceptional solo by bass Enrico Lagasca, a smallish man with a huge, bronze-like basso profundo instrument who made the most of his repeated exhortations to 'Let my people go.'"
PALM BEACH ARTS PAPER
"HIS RICH BASS COMMANDING THE ATTENTION OF THE AUDIENCE WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT."
THE CLASSICAL MUSIC GEEK
"Enrico Lagasca's deep bass-baritone giving the Nazarene an otherworldly authority – a rock unmoved by the air blowing."
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE
"Enrico Lagasca’s mellow solo bass set the atmosphere for the hymn-like stasis of “Hear Us O Lord” and “It is Worth.”"
SOUTH FLORIDA CLASSICAL REVIEW
"Enrico Lagasca used his robust bass timbre to convincingly convey the cunning of Judas and the authority of Pilate, and his vibrant declamation underscored the impassioned pleas of his aria “Gebt mir meinen Jesu wieder!"
SAN DIEGO STORY