Sarasota Opera Visits Verdi (Day 2)

The entrance to the Sala Verdi

The Sarasota Opera Visits Verdi began the evening of the second night with a reception in the “Sala Verdi”, the suite that was the composer’s home in Milan for 30 years and where he died in 1901. When Verdi wasn’t using it, his presumptive heirs like Pietro Mascagni could gain access, but when Verdi wanted it, the current occupant was asked to leave so the composer could have its use. In recent years luminaries like Oprah Winfrey have occupied the prized room in the hotel.

The reception was a precursor to attending a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot at La Scala. Unfortunately Sarasota Opera Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi and Executive Director Richard Russell had to leave the gathering early to meet La Scala’s sovrintendente Alexander Pereira and Director of External Affairs Dr. Donatella Brunezzi. Mr. Pereira welcomed the Sarasotans to La Scala. Mr. Pereira and Dr. Brunezzi already knew about Sarasota Opera and the company and listened with interest as Mo. DeRenzi and Mr. Russell talked about the end of their Verdi Cycle and plans for the future.

Puccini’s opera Turandot received its world premiere at La Scala in 1926, a year and a half following the composer’s death. Left unfinished at the time of Puccini’s demise, it was completed by composer Franco Alfano for the first performance. More recently composer Luciano Berio took another stab at the ending and it was in this version that the Sarasota Opera group saw it on Wednesday night.

Promotional poster for Turandot at La Scala

The performance starred Swedish soprano Nina Stemme in the title role, with Aleksandr Antonenko as Calaf and rising young Italian soprano Maria Agresta as Liù.  Music director designate Ricardo Chailly conducted. The production, much more conceptual than the traditional production seen in Sarasota in 2013, was directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. The audience was extremely enthusiastic about the singers but the visitors from Sarasota were surprised to hear booing as the conductor took his bow. It’s not something we are used to in Sarasota, but a staffer at La Scala warned everyone that it happens often in Italy.

Puccini's Turandot at La Scala

Click HERE to continue onto day 3 and 4 of Sarasota Opera's adventures in Italy...

Sarasota Opera Visits Verdi

At the end of March 2016, Sarasota Opera will complete its Verdi Cycle, a 28-season effort to perform all of the works of Italy’s greatest composer Giuseppe Verdi. This will be a landmark season for the company, with national and international attention focused on Sarasota Opera.

To kick-off the celebratory season, Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi and Executive Director Richard Russell are accompanying a group of 27 Sarasota Opera patrons to Italy as “Sarasota Visits Verdi.”  The 9-night tour includes a sample of audience members who live in Sarasota full-time, are snow-birds and some who come from as far as California and London to join this pilgrimage to visit places where the composer lived and worked.

The trip kicked off on Tuesday night (5/19) with a welcome dinner at the Grand Hotel et de Milan.  This 5-star hotel was the composer’s residence in Milan during the last 30 years of his life and it was in a suite on the first floor that he passed away at the age of 87 on January 27, 1901.

Members of Sarasota Opera's pilgrimage to the sites of Giuseppe Verdi join in the
Grand Hotel et de Milan for a welcome dinner

From the Royal Box at Milan's famed Teatro alla Scala,
a member of the staff  explaines the workings of  Italy's most
venerated Opera House 

The next morning everyone made the short walk to Milan’s famous “Teatro alla Scala,” probably the most venerated opera house in the world. Nevertheless, even this theater, which opened in 1778, and was the site of the premieres of Verdi’s Oberto, Un giorno di regno, Nabucco, I lombardi alla prima crociata, Otello, and Falstaff has not performed all of the composer’s operas, as Sarasota Opera will have by next year.

La Scala has an interesting museum attached to the opera house which charts its history and has a room devoted exclusively to Verdi. The visit also included a guided tour of the auditorium and backstage from one of the theater’s music staff.  The plush historical interior of the theater is in stark contrast to the updated technology visited backstage (result of a 3-year renovation from 2001-2004).

Entrance to the Casa di Riposo in Milan

Following the theater visit, a bus took the group to the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti (Rest Home for Musicians) which is more commonly known as the Casa Verdi. In a letter to a friend the composer wrote: “Among my works, the one I like best is the Home that I have had built in Milan for accommodating old singers not favored by fortune, or who, when they were young, did not possess the virtue of saving. The poor, dear companions of my lifetime! Believe me, my friend, that Home is truly my most beautiful work (la mia opera più bella.”)

Sarasota Opera Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi contemplates a bust of Giuseppe Verdi in the sitting room of the Casa Verdi, the retirement home for poor musicians the composer built in Milan  

It was a novel idea to build and equip a rest home for the disadvantaged when Verdi proposed this idea in in the last years of his life.  It was not the first example of this type of philanthropy. A few years earlier he had built a hospital for the residents of Villanova, a town near his country estate at Sant’Agata. He acquired land on the outskirts of Milan in 1889 for the retirement home and oversaw the design and construction of the building, attending to every detail. He endowed it  with the royalties from his operas (which expired in  1962; it is now funded by a private foundation and the state.)

Under a portrait of the composer Giuseppe Verdi, members of Sarasota Opera's Verdi trip 
hear about his life at the Casa Verdi  

The Sarasotans were  met by the Director of Communications for the Casa Verdi, who highlighted Verdi’s place not only as a great composer of opera, but as a national hero whose music inspired Italians in their quest for unification in the mid 1800s. The house is full of artifacts from Verdi’s collection (including a small piano that he was given as a boy and kept all of his life) and it is in a crypt off the courtyard of the house that is his final resting place, along with his second wife Giuseppina Strepponi.

The crypt at the Casa Verdi where the composer and his wife are buried.

The evening will take the Sarasota contingent back to La Scala for a performance of Turandot by Verdi’s heir, Giacomo Puccini.

Stay tuned for more updates as Sarasota Opera continues its travels through Italy and the life of Giuseppe Verdi. 

ARTISTS CORNER: Soprano Brenda Harris

ARTISTS CORNER:  Soprano Brenda Harris, who has sung leading roles on major stages around the world, will make her Sarasota Opera debut as Turandot in this season's opening production of Puccini's Turandot which opened February 9th and runs through March 23.  We asked Ms. Harris to answer a few questions about her life as a singer and why she chose Sarasota Opera as the opera company to debut this iconic role.



Brenda Harris, soprano.  Photo by Lisa Kohler

 Q.  What drew you to become a singer?  Was there a specific “Aha!” moment of clarity?

A.  I sang as soon as I could talk and gave “recitals” for my family starting at the age of 3.  That said, I really thought I would be an educator (high school music teacher) and probably had my "aha" moment when, during college, I got into the chorus at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.  I grew up on a pig farm in a town of 400 in Illinois (my parents still live and farm there) which is only an hour away from St. Louis so it seemed like an interesting summer job.  Little did I know I would meet my husband that first weekend of rehearsals AND that he would also be my one and only voice teacher!  From that first rehearsal, I knew I wanted to do this opera thing forever!

Q.  What are you looking forward to most about performing this particular role?

A.  This is my first time with Turandot so that’s a hard question.  I adore the music and I feel sure it will be fun to sing.  I have to admit I also think it’ll be cool to be decked out in her costume and make-up!

Q.  What made you choose Sarasota Opera as the first place to present the role of Turandot?

A.  I’ve heard a lot about the company over the years and so I know that things there are done with care.  My husband and I knew Stephanie and Victor many years ago when we first started singing and I reconnected with Stephanie a few years ago when she directed me in a production of ‘Macbeth’.  I look forward to spending time professionally and personally with both of them.  Also, Sarasota Opera does  many performances.  That’s a big draw to me.  One never really knows if a role is a match without getting to try it out a number of times.  I figured this job with this many performances would really let me know if I liked it and it liked me!

Ms. Harris as Turandot in Sarasota Opera's 2013 production.  Photo by Rod Millington

Q.  Is there something unique about your process when preparing a role for performance?

A.  I think all artists probably have a unique process with regard to preparation.  I’ve talked to many of my fellow artists about it and we all seem to have different paths.  I’m a very visual person so I’ve learned over the years to put absolutely EVERYTHING in my score.  One of my greatest fears is losing my scores.  I have markings upon markings that have been painstakingly gathered through research, lessons and coachings and my score becomes almost an appendage when I’m learning.  The other thing I know about myself is that memory and staging are inextricably linked.  I loathe memorizing without staging and yet, of course, it has to be done.  But, once I have something on its feet, it’s pretty much in my head, too.

Q.  Beyond the musical work, what other kind of preparation/research work do you incorporate in the learning process?  Historical?  Character study? 

A.  I listen to lots of recordings.  I know many singers who don’t but I feel knowing the history and tradition of other singers is absolutely essential.  I have a friend who is a great collector and he provides me with wonderful things that aren’t commercially available so I do a lot of listening to live and/or historical recordings.  I read source material if I can find it, and also read about the composer’s life/mindset at the time of the opera’s composition.  Again, I prepare in advance as best I can but I find there’s nothing like staging.  Once I’m in a room with my colleagues and start to respond to them, the production and the act of singing the role, things move quickly forward!

As Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito at the Metropolitan Opera

Q.  How does your preparation process differ between a role you have performed before and a role you are doing for the first time? 

A.  Greatly!  All the time consuming first work is done and in my very marked up score.  A lot of pressure in the process is removed and I try to apply whatever vocal changes/improvements I’ve made in the ensuing time to that next set of performances.  It’s faster and a lot more fun!

Q.  What knowledge about the character of Turandot do you want the audience to leave with after the performance? 

A.  That she’s a woman.  Just a woman.  She’s a woman who has allowed her fear to drive her to desperate acts and once her heart is opened, we see her and her humanity.

Q.  Thus far, what is the most bizarre experience you have had during a rehearsal?  During a performance?

           

A.  Oh my gosh, I could write a book!  The first that comes to mind was a tenor’s pants falling DOWN to his ankles in the curtain call of a performance!  Yes, true!  Very recently, I was singing Leonore in ‘Fidelio’ and in the final prison scene the gun barrel snapped off during a performance in the final Quartet.  I’ve nearly lost wigs, I’ve slipped and fallen on a raked stage covered in sand, I had the organ fail in the church scene in ‘Faust’ and those are just a few!  And during rehearsals?  Don’t even get me started.  I ADORE what I do for many reasons; the pure joy of singing, the thought that maybe what I’m doing touches people in the audience the way singers touched me when I first started studying opera, but one of the other great things is the fun we have in rehearsals.  I have so many friends and colleagues with whom I enjoy working and most of the time, it’s because we can make each other laugh.  I truly believe great art happens in that atmosphere.



Ms. Harris in the title role of Samuel Barber's Vanessa in Palermo

 Q.  Do you have any pre-performance rituals?  Performance superstitions?  Good luck charms?  If yes, why?

A.  I don’t consider myself to be a superstitious person but somehow, a few years ago, I got into the habit of playing games of Freecell on my computer on performance days and that evolved into a little ritual.  I must win the majority of games before I go to the theater!  My husband and I laugh about it but still, I play until I win!

Q.  How do you relax in between performances?  What hobbies do you enjoy at home and “on the road”?

A.  I absolutely love being home!   I love to putter at home improvement projects (I’m a big DIY gal!) and I adore cooking and baking.  I can spend hours in our kitchen and be happy as a clam.  We live near the ocean so beach walks are a big part of our lives, too.  And I’m a crossword and suduko nut!

Ms. Harris as Lady Macbeth in
Edmonton Opera's Macbeth

Q.  How do you stay connected to family and friends when you are “on the road”?  Do you keep a blog?  Website? Facebook?  Twitter?

A.  I am on Facebook but I was dragged into it kicking and screaming by some colleagues at a job a few years ago.  I admit to enjoying it now.  I do have a website (BrendaHarrisSoprano.com if you want to visit!) as well.  But, I’m a big one for e-mail.  I’d say that’s the main way I stay in touch with my friends and family.

Q.  As we have people that travel from around the United States to attend performances at Sarasota Opera, are there any towns or cities that you have a strong connection with whether from growing up or attending school?

A.  I absolutely adore the Twin Cities.  I’ve done a dozen productions or more at the Minnesota Opera and I have many, many friends there.  It’s almost like a second home.  And call me crazy, but I adore winter and all that goes with it.  Most of the shows I’ve done in Minnesota have been in January and I love it!  Also, as I mentioned, I love St. Louis and have fond feelings for my time there.  And I’ve spend the last 4 summers at Des Moines Metro Opera and I go back there this coming summer.  I love being there and getting to work with the young artists as well as perform.

  

Don't miss Brenda Harris' tour-de-force performance as the ice princess Turandot now open through March 23rd.  Tickets are available at www.sarasotaopera.org or by calling (941) 328-1300. 

ARTISTS CORNER: Tenor Jonathan Burton

ARTISTS CORNER:  Tenor Jonathan Burton will make his Sarasota Opera debut as Prince Calaf in this season's opening production of Puccini's Turandot opening February 9th.  We asked Mr. Burton to answer a few questions about his life as a singer and what he is looking forward to in his first season at Sarasota Opera.



Tenor Jonathan Burton

 Q.  What drew you to become a singer?  Was there a specific “Aha!” moment of clarity?

A.  I took a voice lesson at 17 for the school musical. The teacher said I should consider opera. At the time I was a guitarist in a rock band, so it seemed far-fetched.  I suppose it was a recording of La bohème which really set the hook in deep.

Q.  What are you looking forward to most about performing this particular role?

A.  Frankly, everything.  This is my dream role.  Calaf to me is the pinnacle of great Italian tenor roles.  Ever since I saw it at the Met in 1995, and got Corelli's famous recording, it's been the tops for me.  And the fact that my first one is with Maestro DeRenzi and directed by Ms. Sundine is truly a gift!!

Q.  Is there something unique about your process when preparing a role for performance?

A.  Probably not unique among singers. No real tricks, or extra measures.  Mainly, I try to visualize the scenes in my mind.  Make sure I have something to say.  I explore the composers simple and true intention, and work to convey it.

Q.  Beyond the musical work, what other kind of preparation/research work do you incorporate in the learning process?  Historical?  Character study? 

A.  I love to read what great tenors from the past have said about performing the role, get their insights, and also learn what audiences love/loved about it.  At the end of the day, that's why I'm here.  I hope to give fans of opera what they want and need.



Mr. Burton as Don José in Bizet's Carmen

 Q.  How does your preparation process differ between a role you have performed before and a role you are doing for the first time? 

A.  Huge difference!! Learning a new role is a HUGE process.  Translations, acting, characterization, musical searching and defining, exploring multiple options, listening to various interpretations. When I sing a role I have already sung before, there are always new things to consider, but the part already lives inside you.

Q.  What knowledge about the character of Prince Calaf do you want the audience to leave with after the performance? 

A.  That he believed in his mission and would not let anything stop him until he achieved success.  He believed that his great capacity to love could move mountains, and tame the ferocious Turandot.

Q.  The aria “Nessun Dorma” has been sung by some of the vocal greats…  from Corelli to Pavarotti to even Aretha Franklin!  Do you feel any kind of elevated pressure in having to perform such a well known aria? 

A.  Well...now that you put it THAT way!!!  Haha.  No, not really.  Those guys sang every thing else I sang too! This is a very famous aria now, but, to me it is a one aria among many, and an essential part of this opera.  In context it holds no special terror.  In fact I'm honored to be able to present it.  However...in a concert, it can be a touch nerve-wracking!!  The audience starts to murmur as soon as you say the first lines.



Mr. Burton singing the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca

 Q.  Thus far, what is the most bizarre experience you have had during a rehearsal?  During a performance?

A.  Once, while playing Spoletta in Tosca, the fellow playing Scarpia threw me extra hard on opening night and I left the ground.  When I landed, my feet shuffled trying to catch hold and I slid under his desk from where I had to deliver my next line!!​

The following week, another performer missed his entrance and I turned my back and sang his first two lines till he arrived...quite shaken!!!

Q.  Do you have any pre-performance rituals?  Performance superstitions?  Good luck charms? 

A.  No, I'm afraid I don't. Just...pace around and mumble prayers!!

Q.  How do you relax in between performances?  What hobbies do you enjoy at home and “on the road”?

A.  My apple electronics are my dear friends. They hold my music, books, tv shows, and movies. I spend time with my ipad and a big pot of tea.  Also, I make wire-wrap jewelry and rosaries, and write fiction.

Q.  How do you stay connected to family and friends when you are “on the road”?  Do you keep a blog?  Website?Facebook?  Twitter?

A.  I do have Facebook and twitter. And try to update them frequently.  With my family, I rely on text messes and FaceTime, which is video chatting.  My kids love it.

Q.  As we have people that travel from around the United States to attend performances at Sarasota Opera, are there any towns or cities that you have a strong connection with whether from growing up or attending school?

A.  I'm from a small town in Ohio, Portsmouth. It's dear to me. The cities in which I've performed all have their own faces and personalities which are dear to me. For instance, Sarasota will always be the home of my debut of my favorite role, and daily here I meet new fantastic people who I hope to retain as lifelong friends.

Don't miss Mr. Burton as he makes his Sarasota Opera debut in this season's production of Puccini's Turandot opening February 9th!  Get your tickets today at www.sarasotaopera.org or by calling the Sarasota Opera box office at (941) 328-1300.

ARTISTS CORNER: Soprano Maria Natale

ARTISTS CORNER:  Soprano Maria Natale will make her Sarasota Opera debut as the slave girl Liù in this season's opening production of Puccini's Turandot opening February 9th.  We asked Ms. Natale to answer a few questions about her life as a singer and what she is looking forward to in the upcoming season.   

Q. What drew you to become a singer? Was there a specific “Aha!” moment of clarity?

A. Well, I knew I wanted to be a singer since I was pretty young. My grandfather sang opera and every time I would go to his house I distinctly remember opera playing. He would usually be playing Tosca, Aida or Wagner. The “ah ha” moment was probably when I was ten years old. My grandfather gave me a CD of Joan Sutherland singing “Casta Diva” from the opera Norma. He always would say that I would be an opera singer one day, so I should start listening to it. I listened to that CD every night to fall asleep. I remember thinking her voice sounded like and angel. Ever since then I was hooked. About that time I started singing in school musicals. I sang Snow White in a production in 5th grade and received a note from the directors which read, “see you at the Met in the next twenty years or so." I came home and remember asking my mom, “What’s the Met?” I keep that note in my wallet to this day.


Q. What are you looking forward to most about performing this particular role?

A.  I have wanted to sing this role for such a long time. It is so emotional and brings so many tender moments to the opera. Every day I feel like I have to pinch myself because I can’t believe that I get to sing this beautiful music! I am also really looking forward to my death scene (not to sound morbid or anything). This is the first time I have ever “died” on stage, I am kind of excited out it!


Q. Is there something unique about your process when preparing a role for performance?

A. I don’t think that there is anything really unique about my process when preparing a role. I first make sure that I read the libretto and translate so I know every word. When I start learning the music, I usually begin from the end of the score and work my way backwards to the beginning. If I start at the end, I tend to memorize more quickly and don’t get to caught up in the first few pages for too long.

Ms. Natale in rehearsal for Turandot at Sarasota Opera

Q. Beyond the musical work, what other kind of preparation/research work do you incorporate in the learning process? Historical? Character study?

A. I always find historical background of the opera very helpful. If there is a play that the opera is based on, it helps me to read it to understand the story and characters even more.


Q. How does your preparation process differ between a role you have performed before and a role you are doing for the first time?

A. Learning roles for the first time is all I really know at this point! Every role I learn has had a different process. I am still trying to figure out what works best for me.


Q. What knowledge about the character of Liù do you want the audience to leave with after the performance?

A. I don’t want people to leave feeling sorry for Liù. She makes a stand for herself, and in some ways, she gets what she wants. In the beginning, Liù wouldn’t have dreamed about even speaking to the Prince as a lowly slave girl. At the end, his fate and the fate of Turandot are in her hands. That’s an impressive accomplishment for a slave girl. For one moment in her life, she has all the power.


Q. Do you have any pre-performance rituals? Performance superstitions? Good luck charms? If yes, why?

A. When I was younger, I used to get wrapped up all on pre-performance rituals, like thinking that I MUST eat pineapple before every performance, like it had “magical powers” to help me sing. Now I just make sure that I am well rested (sleep is key!) I stay hydrated and try to do some sort of physical activity the day of a performance. A nice relaxing walk or yoga helps me get ready for an upcoming performance.


Q. How do you relax in between performances? What hobbies do you enjoy at home and “on the road”?

A. I love yoga. It really helps me relax since I can be high strung at times! I also love to cook and entertain for my family and friends. Nothing beats cooking a big Italian meal with a nice glass of wine.

Q. People are sometimes shocked when they find out opera singers don’t just listen to opera exclusively. Do you have other types of music you enjoy? Any other types you enjoy singing?

A. For the most part I listen to classical. I listen to a lot of instrumental music. I could listen to the Brahms symphonies all day long. My husband and I also like to listen to Italian pop music and the old classics of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.


Q. How do you stay connected to family and friends when you are “on the road”? Do you keep a blog? Website? Facebook? Twitter?

A. I always stay connected with my family either through phone, text or Facebook. I am a very social person, so I like to be in contact with my friends and family. It is very easy for me to get lonely! I talk to my mother every morning without fail and my husband and I recently started using Facetime through the Ipad and Iphone.

Q. As we have people that travel from around the United States to attend performances at Sarasota Opera, are there any towns or cities that you have a strong connection with whether from growing up or attending school?

A. A little piece of me will always be in San Francisco. I went to the music conservatory there and it is the place that I first fully immersed myself into music. It is so beautiful there, especially if you can get a day without the fog! Every part of town is so unique and special. Currently I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is a drastic change from California, but I find it to be a very charming city. The people that I have met in Knoxville will always be close to my heart. It has been such a supportive place for me to be at this point in my life.

Don't miss Ms. Natale as she makes her Sarasota Opera debut in this season's production of Puccini's Turandot.  Get your tickets today at www.sarasotaopera.org or by calling the Sarasota Opera box office at (941) 328-1300.

Sarasota Opera 2012-2013 Season will feature Regional and World Premieres!

Sarasota Opera is pleased to announce its 2012 – 2013 Fall and Winter Seasons!

2012 Fall Season
The 2012 Fall Sarasota Opera Season will open with Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto [rih-go-leht-to], based off of Victor Hugo’s play “Le Roi s’Amuse” and the opera chosen to be the first performed in the newly renovated opera house when it re-opened in 2008. The story follows a hunchbacked jester as he tries to shield his daughter Gilda from the evils of the world only to have it unveiled that she is in love with the lascivious Duke of Mantua who has deceived her to win her heart. Rigoletto will open on October 26, 2012 and run through November 12, 2012.

In addition, the fall season will include the world premiere performance of Sarasota Youth Opera’s newest commission, Little Nemo in Slumberland, music by Daron Hagen and libretto by J.D. McClatchy.

Little Nemo in Slumberland will be a Co-Production with the University of Kentucky Opera Theater and will utilize a new leading edge, innovative theater technology, SCRIBE (Self-Contained Rapidly Integratable Background Environment), that was piloted at the University of Kentucky. This technology, which has been successfully used in productions at the University of Kentucky Opera Theater and The Atlanta Opera, will help meet the creative challenge presented by bringing such a fantasy based story to life. There will be two performances on November 10 and 11, 2012.

2013 Winter Festival
The 2013 Sarasota Opera Winter Festival will open with the Sarasota Opera premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s vocally extravagant final opera Turandot [too-ran-dough] which features some of the composers most glorious music including the famous tenor aria “Nessum Dorma” (None shall sleep). Set in Ancient China, Turandot is based off an ancient Persian fairy tale which tells the story of a beautiful princess who men travelled all over the world to win the heart of by solving three riddles. Answer incorrectly and lose your head. Answer correctly and melt the heart of the ice princess Turandot.

Following Turandot will be much in demand return of Georges Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers (Les Pêcheurs de perles [lay peh-share deh peh-rl]), a proven favorite of Sarasota Opera audiences. Last seen in 2003, The Pearl Fishers features the famously infectious Act I duet for tenor and baritone “Au fond du temple saint”, in which our two heroes, Nadir and Zurga, reaffirm their pact of eternal friendship despite their mutual love for the priestess Leila.

Sarasota Opera will present the world premiere of a new critical edition (transcribed directly from Verdi’s manuscript) of Giuseppe Verdi’s second opera A King for a Day (Un giorno di regno) [oon jor-no di ray-no]), Verdi’s first comic opera (his only other comedy was his final opera Falstaff). A King for a Day is based on the play Le faux Stanislas by Alexandre Vincent Pineu-Duval. A true Verdi rarity, A King for a Day will be the 29th installment in the company’s continuing Verdi Cycle.

Of this production, Maestro DeRenzi says, “It is part of our artistic vision to present all of Verdi’s rarely performed works along with the more mainstream pieces. Our audience has come to recognize and appreciate the artistic value of these early works, and we are proud to be one of the only opera companies in the United States to present them.” 2013 will also mark the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth.

Finally, Sarasota Opera will present Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men as a continuation of the American Classics Series. Premiered in 1969 at Seattle Opera, Floyd adapted the opera from the novella by John Steinbeck and wrote both the music and libretto himself. The opera stays faithful to Steinbeck’s story of two workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, struggling for work during the depression era as they pursue their hopes to achieve the American dream of owning their own farm one day. However, when a hard and cruel world forces them down a different path, George and Lennie are forced to say goodbye to the bright horizon they had envisioned for themselves.

As was done with the first two American Classics Series Operas, the 2011 production of The Crucible and the 2012 production of Vanessa, Sarasota Opera will design a series of education events around this production Of Mice and Men to help familiarize and educate the Sarasota Opera audience about this important work.

The four productions will run in rotation from February 9 through March 24, 2013.