Sarasota Opera Adds Matinee To Fall Season Performances

By popular demand, an additional "Live from the Sarasota Opera House" concert featuring favorite opera selections by Verdi, Rossini, Puccini, Wagner, and Mozart, accompanied by piano, is now scheduled for Sunday, November 15th at 1:30 pm. The concert will feature the same repertoire as the Friday, November 13th performance, along with the same artists: sopranos Hanna Brammer, Anna Mandina, and Caitlin Crabill, tenors Andrew Surrena and Samuel Schlievert, baritone Alexander Boyd, and bass Young Bok Kim, accompanied by Jesse Martins and George Hemcher at the piano. All seats are well-spaced, with face masks and temperature checks required for all attendees. Tickets $25-45. A limited number of seats are still available for the Friday, November 13th 7:30 pm performance, and tickets for the live stream are available at $10. The live stream will be available for viewing for two weeks. Visit SarasotaOpera.org or call the Box Office at (941) 328-1300 for tickets or more information.

This is Sarasota Opera's 62nd Season of bringing world-class opera to Florida's Gulf Coast. The company was launched in 1960, when a touring chamber opera company came to the historic 320-seat Asolo Theater on the grounds of Sarasota's Ringling Museum of Art and the Asolo Opera Guild was formed to present the season. By 1974 the Asolo Opera was mounting its own productions at the theater. Recognizing the need for a theater more conducive to full-scale opera, the company purchased the former A.B. Edwards Theater which in 1984 (as the Sarasota Opera House) became home to the newly renamed Sarasota Opera. The building underwent a $20 million renovation and rehabilitation in 2007 enhancing audience amenities, while updating the technical facilities including increasing the size of the orchestra pit. The theater, which reopened in March 2008, has been called "one of America's finest venues for opera" by Musical America.

Since 1983, the company has been under the artistic leadership of Victor DeRenzi and administrative leadership of Executive Director Richard Russell since 2012. Sarasota Opera has garnered international attention with its Masterwork Revivals Series, which presents neglected works of artistic merit, as well as the Verdi Cycle, completed in 2016, that made Sarasota Opera the only opera company in the world to present all of Verdi's works. Recognizing the importance of training, Maestro DeRenzi founded the Apprentice and Studio Artist's programs. Sarasota Opera also maintains a commitment to education through its "Explorations in Opera" performances for local schools and the industry-leading Sarasota Youth Opera program.