Sarasota Opera Receives NEA Grant

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved an Art Works award of $20,000 to support the winter 2017 production of The Dialogues of the Carmelites by Francis Poulenc. More than $82 million has been designated to fund local arts projects and partnerships around the country in the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016. This production will be a part of the newly launched "Sarasota Firsts" initiative in which the company will produce operas never before seen on the Sarasota Opera House stage.

"The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected," said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. "Supporting projects like the one from Sarasota Opera offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day."

"We are extremely grateful to the NEA for their continued support of the Sarasota Opera," says Executive Director Richard Russell. "This support will enable Sarasota Opera to bring one of the great masterworks of the twentieth century to our audience for the first time."

Based on real events and set during the French Revolution's infamous "Reign of Terror," Poulenc's opera tells the story of Blanche de la Force as she goes against the wishes of her aristocratic family and dedicates her life to God's service by joining a Carmelite order. The revolution threatens to destroy all that is most sacred to the nuns putting Blanche's faith to the ultimate test; to choose between life or to follow her sacred calling through to the end.

The 2017 Winter Opera Festival will be the first season following the culmination of Sarasota Opera's 28-year Verdi Cycle which made Sarasota Opera the only company in the world to have performed every work of Giuseppe Verdi.

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