Sarasota Opera
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Sarasota Opera is a professional opera company in Sarasota, Florida, USA, which owns and performs in the 1,033-seat Sarasota Opera House.
Under the artistic direction of Victor DeRenzi since 1982 and executive director Susan T. Danis since 1999, the company typically presents a Fall concert and outreach season in November, which includes concerts with soloists and orchestra, and free concerts held in the Sarasota Opera House Courtyard. In February and March the company presents its Winter Opera Festival, usually four fully-staged operas with the Sarasota Opera Orchestra. The repertoire includes standard works as well as lesser known operas.
One of the company's important initiatives is the Verdi Cycle: an effort, which began in 1989, to perform all of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, including all alternative versions of the operas.
Another major cycle is the Masterworks Revival Series, which presents neglected works of artistic merit. Operas presented in this cycle have included Alfredo Catalani's La Wally, Carl Nielsen's Maskarade, Engelbert Humperdinck's Königskinder, and Stanisław Moniuszko's Halka.
[edit] Company history
The company was founded as the Asolo Opera Guild which presented the Turneau Opera of Woodstock, New York in chamber-sized opera at the historic Asolo Theater on the grounds of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. In 1974 the guild began mounting its own productions at the Asolo.
Recognizing the need for a larger theater with an orchestra pit, the guild purchased the then-closed A. B. Edwards Theatre, which had been renamed as the Florida Theater. The theater had been built in 1926 by an important early resident of Sarasota, Arthur Britton Edwards, as a versatile performance venue that could be adapted for vaudeville or as a movie house. The guild members renovated the building in 1982. The next year the A. B. Edwards Theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was reopened as the Sarasota Opera House in 1984.
The company also runs an Apprentice Program and its Studio Artists Program. Both programs provide young singers with additional training and performance opportunities, as the chorus or, in small roles in the company's productions.
The Sarasota Opera has a long-running Youth Opera program which is a a comprehensive training program designed for young people, ages 10 and above. The program admits all who apply, regardless of skill level, and provides an exploration of the musical and theatrical aspects of opera.
