Sarasota, FL – Sarasota Opera has announced the 2023-2024 Opera Season today in a press conference on the main stage of the Sarasota Opera House. It will include four exciting opera productions, with one company premiere, a revival of a Sarasota Opera favorite, and two works that have not been given in more than a decade. There will also be a return of a favorite concert with orchestra and the industry-leading Sarasota Youth Opera production.
Emerging from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and two major storms last season, the company has decided to scale back the Fall Opera Season for one year. Instead of a fall production, the company will present two performances of a concert featuring the works of Giacomo Puccini, one of opera’s favorite composers. This will be performed by five soloists and continues the partnership with the Sarasota Orchestra, conducted by Victor DeRenzi. The Sarasota Youth Opera will also present The Little Sweep by Benjamin Britten to the stage in a favorite production.
The 2024 Winter Opera Festival, running from February 17 through March 24, 2024, will feature four productions. The festival will open on February 17 with Carmen by Georges Bizet, a company favorite, last seen in 2018. Gaetano Donizetti’s brooding masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor, last given in 2012 will return on February 24. Giuseppe Verdi’s Luisa Miller, last performed nearly 25 years ago will open on March 9. The festival will conclude with the Sarasota Opera premiere of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Deceit Outwitted (L’infedeltà delusa) a charming comedy, which has not had a fully-staged production in the U.S. by a professional American opera company since 1971.
Subscriptions for the 2023-2024 Season will be available for renewal on Monday, March 20th online at SarasotaOpera.org and in the Sarasota Opera Box Office. Single tickets for the 2023-2024 Season will go on sale on September 1, 2023. For more information on the 2023-2024 season, please contact the Sarasota Opera Box office at (941) 328-1300, visit us in person at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue in Downtown Sarasota, or online at SarasotaOpera.org.
2023 Fall Season
The Music of Giacomo Puccini
November 10 at 7:30 pm
November 12 at 3:00 pm
The operas of Giacomo Puccini are some of the most popular in the repertoire. Soloists from Sarasota Opera, partnering with the Sarasota Orchestra, conducted by Victor DeRenzi will present favorite selections from these great works.
The Little Sweep by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by Eric Crozier
Sarasota Youth Opera production
November 4 at 5:00 pm
November 5 at 12:30 pm
Sarasota Youth Opera will present a revival of our acclaimed production of Britten’s charming opera—The Little Sweep. A group of children, with the help of a kind nursery maid, work to free a young chimney sweep apprentice from his cruel master. Last seen in 2018, this enchanting work, which was written to introduce young people to opera, will be sure to delight children and adults alike.
2024 Winter Opera Festival Season
Carmen by Georges Bizet
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
Based on the story of the same title by Prosper Mérimée
12 performances: February 17 – March 22
Feb. 17, 20, 22, 25 (matinee), 28, Mar. 2 (matinee), 5, Mar. 8, 13, 17, 19 (matinee), 22
Carmen, the seductive and enigmatic heroine of Bizet’s opera, has enticed Corporal Don José who upends his life to be with her. When her interest turns to the charismatic bullfighter Escamillo, José’s enraged jealousy leads to catastrophe. Opera-lovers and newcomers alike will bask in some of opera’s most recognizable music!
Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Based on The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott
8 performances: February 24 – March 23
Feb. 24, 27, 29, Mar. 3 (matinee), 6, 10 (matinee), 16, 23
Deceit leads to murder and madness, in Donizetti’s masterpiece, based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor. To save his family’s fortunes, Enrico Ashton has promised his sister Lucia’s hand to a Scottish nobleman, instead of the man she loves, Edgardo, a member of a rival family. The ensuing drama is excitingly captured in Donizetti’s beautifully romantic music, with many well-known operatic highlights including Lucia’s famous mad scene.
Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Based on Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von Schiller
6 performances: March 9 – 24
Mar. 9, 12, 14, 16 (matinee), 20, 24 (matinee)
One of Giuseppe Verdi’s lesser performed but passionately romantic dramas, Luisa Miller returns to Sarasota Opera after 25 years. Luisa, the daughter of an old soldier, is in love with Carlo, who is really, Rodolfo, the son of the ruthless Count Walter. The count’s opposition to the couple’s love leads to tragedy, in an opera filled with memorable arias and thrilling ensembles.
Deceit Outwitted (L’infedeltà delusa) by Joseph Haydn
Libretto by Marco Coltellini
5 performances: March 15 – 23
Mar. 15, 17 (matinee), 19, 21, 23 (matinee)
Franz Joseph Haydn is one of classical music’s most famous composers, but his substantial body of opera is virtually unknown. In the delightful comedy, Deceit Outwitted (L’infedeltà delusa), the peasant Filippo hopes his daughter Sandrina will marry the rich farmer Nencio. She is in love, however, with a poor peasant, whose sister is in love with Nencio. Through a series of comic complications (including a parade of disguises), all is happily resolved, accompanied by Haydn’s inventive score and brilliant singing. This will be a Sarasota Opera premiere and the first fully-staged professional production in the U.S. in over 50 years.
ABOUT SARASOTA OPERA
Sarasota Opera is entering its 64th Season of bringing world-class opera to Florida’s Gulf Coast. The company was launched in 1960 in the historic 320-seat Asolo Theater on the grounds of Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art. In 1984 the company moved into the former A.B. Edwards Theater—now the Sarasota Opera House. Since then, the company has gained an international reputation as one of the leading regional opera companies in the U.S. through initiatives such as the Masterworks Revival Series and the Verdi Cycle. The company’s Sarasota Youth Opera is the most comprehensive Youth Program in the U.S. The Sarasota Opera House, which underwent a $20 million renovation and rehabilitation in 2007, 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 General Director Richard Russell since 2012.
Sarasota Opera is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts. Programs are paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues.
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