Sarasota Opera
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Sarasota Opera is a professional opera company in Sarasota, Florida, USA, which owns and performs in the now-renovated 1,200-seat Sarasota Opera House.
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[edit] Company history
The company was founded as the Asolo Opera Guild which presented the Turnau 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. After acquiring the Edwards Theatre in 1979, the company set about a rehabilitation of the old movie theatre and opened as the Sarasota Opera in 1984.
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. Traditionally 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.
[edit] Characteristic features of the company
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, by 2013, the bicentenary of Verdi's birth.[1] After presenting I due Foscari in 2008, remaining Verdi operas to be performed in future years include Un giorno di regno, Giovanna d'Arco, I Lombardi, Jérusalem (a revised version of I Lombardi), La battaglia di Legnano, I vespri siciliani (The original French version was given in 1994), Aida and Otello.
Another major cycle is the Masterworks Revival Series,[2] 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.
The company also runs an Apprentice Program and a Studio Artists Program. Both programs provide young singers with additional training and performance opportunities in the chorus or other small roles in the company's productions.
The Sarasota Opera has a long-running Youth Opera program, 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. In recent years, the Sarasota Youth Opera has mounted world premieres on Sarasota's stage, the best-known being The Language of Birds, and will give the US premiere of Canadian composer Dean Burry's children's opera The Hobbit in 2008. The next world premiere to be presented by the Sarasota Youth Opera will be based in Windsor McCay's comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland currently being composed by Ned Rorem, a celebrated American Opera composer.
After the theatre's renovation period between the end of the 2007 season and the start of the 2008 season on March 1st, in 2009 the company returns to its traditional February and March performance dates, the season beginning and ending with Tosca on February 7th and March 29th and including seven performances of the not-frequently presented 5-act original French version of Verdi's Don Carlos as part of the Verdi cycle.
[edit] Sarasota Opera House
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 in December 1936. 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 beginning 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. From 2007 until the opening of the new season on 1 March 2008, the opera house was extensively remodeled and updated throughout its interior and exterior. The $20 million renovations included a gutting of the auditorium, resulting in a newly configured seating plan, expansion of the public areas and Opera Club on the second level, the opening up of the atrium to reveal a newly installed skylight system which had existed in the 1926 building. Seating has been expanded to approximately 1,200, but adjustments will be made at the end of the present season.
[edit] Future Seasons
In the Fall of 2008, Sarasota Opera will present its first ever Fall Season. The opera to be performed, The Barber of Seville by Gioacchino Rossini, opens on November 7th and runs for five performances until the 16th. The regular Winter Opera Festival in 2009 will include:
Tosca by Giacomo Puccini
The Elixir of Love by Gaetano Donizetti
L'amico Fritz by Pietro Mascagni
Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi (The 4-Act French Version)
