Victor DeRenzi (photo by Salvatore Brancifort)
The 2009-10 season will be Victor DeRenzi's 28th as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Sarasota Opera. As the company's Artistic Director Maestro DeRenzi has produced over 75 different operas and conducted over 400 performances.
He has devoted much of his career to building Sarasota Opera while continuing to conduct nationally and internationally. Maestro DeRenzi has appeared across the United States with Lyric Opera of Chicago as well as at the St. Louis, Toledo, and New Orleans operas. Internationally he has worked in Nice, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and at L'Opéra du Montréal. He was also a frequent visitor to opera companies in Hong Kong, and the Canary Islands.
Maestro DeRenzi's artistic vision has garnered the company international attention as a place to experience rarely performed operatic works. He initiated Sarasota Opera's Verdi Cycle, which will see the performance of the complete works of Giuseppe Verdi, and the Masterworks Revival Series, which produces neglected operas of significant artistic merit. This growth in artistic reputation has been matched in many other areas as well. Under DeRenzi's leadership, Sarasota Opera has created important educational and outreach activities. The year-round activities of the Sarasota Youth Opera Program introduce young people, ages of 8 to 18, to all aspects of opera. The program constitutes a remarkable learning and performing opportunity with three Youth Opera Choruses and an annual production of a professionally staged opera with the Youth Opera members performing. In 2008 the Youth Opera will present the American premiere of Canadian composer Dean Burry's The Hobbit. Sarasota Youth Opera has commissioned a work from a major American composer and librettist for a future season.
Maestro DeRenzi's interest in the training of professional singers led to the founding of Sarasota Opera's Apprentice and Studio Artists programs. Chosen from national auditions, the participants in the Apprentice Artists Program form the chorus for the main stage opera productions and perform outreach programs. Many former Sarasota Opera Apprentice and Studio Artists have gone on to perform leading roles with the company as well as with the major opera houses of the world.
Maestro DeRenzi is a noted Verdi specialist. Sarasota Opera's 2009 production of Don Carlos will mark the 26th different Verdi opera he has conducted. He has also led almost all of the composer's non-operatic output, as well as editing a two-volume edition of his complete songs with piano, many of which were not previously available. Through the Verdi Cycle, which he began in 1989, Maestro DeRenzi and Sarasota Opera are committed to performing the entire canon of Verdi's works.
Although Maestro DeRenzi is a noted Verdi and Puccini conductor, his repertoire also includes operas by Janáček, Mozart, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, and Stravinsky, among others.
in May 2007 Maestro DeRenzi was honored by OPERA America for 25 years of service. The City of Sarasota has recognized him on three separate occasions for service to the community. He was also featured on the cover of the March 2007 issue of Sarasota Magazine, which has twice recognized him as one of Sarasota's 100 Most Powerful People.
During Sarasota Opera's 2009-10 season he will conduct Verdi's La traviata and Giovanna d'Arco, and the double bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci.