Sarasota Fl – The Music of Giacomo Puccini will launch Sarasota Opera’s 2023-2024 mainstage season on November 10, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. and November 12, 2023 at 3 p.m. at the Sarasota Opera House. This concert of selections from the great Italian composer’s operas will be conducted by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Victor DeRenzi and will continue the company’s partnership with the Sarasota Orchestra. Soloists will include Sarasota Opera favorite artists sopranos Hanna Brammer and Erica Petrocelli, tenors Rafael Dávila and Christopher Oglesby. Baritone Jean Carlos Rodriguez will be making his company debut with this concert.
“Puccini’s music has always been a major part of Sarasota Opera repertoire, as it has been for many opera companies,” stated Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi. “His operas have made many people opera lovers. We hope to rekindle your first love of Puccini or bring his extraordinary sense of drama and the beauty of his music to you for the first time.”
The Music of Giacomo Puccini will feature arias and ensembles from every one of the composer’s twelve operas. Selections will include some audience favorites like “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca, the Love Duet from Madama Butterfly, and that ever-popular “Nessun dorma” from Turandot. In addition to these well-loved scenes, audiences will hear excerpts from his lesser-known operas like Le Villi and Edgar (the only two Puccini operas that haven’t been performed by Sarasota Opera).
Single tickets for The Music of Giacomo Puccini go on sale on August 1, 2023 at the Sarasota Opera Box Office, by phone at (941) 328-1300, in person at 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota, or online at https://tickets.sarasotaopera.org. Ticket prices range from $37 to $101.
# # #
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 in2007, 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.
ARTISTS
Soprano Hanna Brammer made her debut with Sarasota Opera in 2016 as a Studio Artist and has gone on to sing many leading roles with the company including Micaela in Carmen, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Gilda in Rigoletto, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, and Leila in The Pearl Fishers among others. This winter she returns as Vespina in Haydn’s Deceit Outwitted (L’infedeltà delusa). She has also sung leading with Opera Columbus, St. Petersburg Opera, Nashville Opera, Mississippi Opera, Opera Memphis, Festival Amadeus, Indianapolis Opera, Opera North, Opera Project Columbus, Painted Sky Opera, and Wichita Grand Opera. This spring she will return to Opera Tampa to make her role debut as Violetta in La traviata.
Erica Petrocelli, soprano, made her debut with Sarasota Opera last season as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. A graduate of young artist programs of Opernhaus Zürich and LA Opera, in the 2023-2024 season, Ms. Petrocelli returns to LA Opera as Donna Clara, the Infanta in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, conducted by James Conlon. Concert appearances include Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with Peoria Symphony, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Florida Orchestra. Opera appearances of recent seasons have also included Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Delia in Il viaggio a Reims with Opernhaus Zürich. Stateside, she has performed Pamina in The Magic Flute with Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
The Music of Giacomo Puccini will mark the 20th anniversary of the Sarasota Opera debut of tenor Rafael Dávila, who first joined the company in The Puccini Concert in 2003. Since then, he has been a company favorite, singing the title roles in Massenet’s Werther (2005), Verdi’s Otello (2012), and Verdi’s Ernani (2023) among many appearances with the company over the last two decades. International engagements include his debut at the Liceu de Barcelona, San Francisco Opera and Opera de Valencia. Last season he sang in performances of Cherubini’s Medea and Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera, where he will return for Ismaele in Nabucco this season. In 2024 he will be appearing as Rodolfo in Luisa Miller with Sarasota Opera and debut the title role in Samson et Dalila at Opera Colorado.
Christopher Oglesby, tenor, was first heard at Sarasota Opera in 2023 as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and will return for Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in the upcoming season. A recent Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera, he made his house debut there as Dancaïre in Carmen, later singing Benvolio in Roméo et Juliette, Edmondo in Manon Lescaut, Jaquino in Fidelio, and covering Ferrando in Così fan tutte. Christopher made his role and company debut as Boris in Kát’a Kabanová with West Edge Opera last summer.
Baritone Jean Carlos Rodriguez makes his Sarasota Opera debut in The Music of Giacomo Puccini and will return for the Winter Opera Festival to sing Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor. A frequent guest artist with Opera Tampa, he sung Escamillo in Carmen, Count di Lunain Il trovatore, Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana, and the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with the company.