Sarasota Opera Announces 2020-2021 Season

2020 Fall Season
Don Giovanni by W.A. Mozart
The Hobbit by Dean Burry

2020 Winter Opera Festival
Tosca by Giacomo Puccini
The Daughter of the Regiment by Gaetano Donizetti
The Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet
Attila by Guiseppe Verdi

February 4, 2020
Contact: Lana Mullen, Communications Coordinator
(941) 328-1322
[email protected]

Sarasota, FL – An adventure around the world awaits with the 2020-2021 Sarasota Opera Season, as announced today at a press conference held at the Sarasota Opera House. Executive Director Richard Russell and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Victor DeRenzi presided over the event and were joined by principal artists performing selected arias from the upcoming seasons’ works.

“The variety of the 2020-21 season means that it includes a number of works that have been absent from our stage for some time and some of our audience’s favorites,” says Executive Director Richard Russell. “They also represent several of the great opera composers, including our beloved Giuseppe Verdi.”

2020 Fall Season
The fall season opens on Friday, October 30, 2020 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Set in 17th century Spain, this tale of obsession, betrayal, crime, and retribution centers around the infamous womanizer Don Juan, who leaves a path of broken hearts wherever he goes. Six performances: October 30, November 1, 4, 10, 12, 15, 2020. Don Giovanni was last seen in 2011.
Sarasota Youth Opera will present Dean Burry’s The Hobbit. Set in an ancient world of fantasy, this prelude to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings follows Bilbo Baggins, a comfort- loving hobbit who is unwillingly dragged into a heroic quest. His journey through treacherous lands inhabited by monsters and filled with looming dangers will lead him to accidentally acquire the golden ring of power. Two performances: November 13 & 14, 2020. The Hobbit was last seen in 2014.

2021 Winter Opera Festival
The 2021 Winter Opera Festival will open on Saturday, February 6, 2021, with Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. Set in Rome, an escaped political prisoner seeks the help of his friend, painter Mario Cavaradossi, the lover of the famous diva Floria Tosca. The lecherous chief of police Baron Scarpia attempts to recapture the fugitive by planting a seed of suspicion in Tosca. By igniting her jealousy and setting a dreadful trap, he forces a desperate Tosca to make a horrific choice to save her beloved. Twelve performances: February 6, 9, 11, 14, 17, 23, 27 and March 5, 10, 13, 18, 20, 2021. Tosca was last seen in 2015.

The Daughter of the Regiment by Gaetano Donizetti. Love for Marie, a girl raised by a French regiment, will lead the young Tonio to unexpected lengths in this colorful comedy set in Tyrol during the Napoleonic Wars. Tonio and Marie are inseparable—until the Marquise of Birkenfeld claims the girl as her long-lost niece. As poor Marie struggles with her new role in society, Tonio and the whole regiment work together to get her back. Eight performances: February 13, 16, 18, 21, 26 and March 3, 7, 13, 2021. The Daughter of the Regiment was last seen in Sarasota in 1987.

The Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet. Set in legendary Ceylon, longtime friends Nadir and Zurga once shared the same forbidden love for the priestess Leila —a love they renounced in order to keep their friendship. When Leila reappears years later, the friendship will once again be tested. Consumed by jealousy and facing a terrible choice between duty and friendship, only Zurga can save Leila and Nadir from a horrible fate. Seven performances: February 20, 24, 28 and March 2, 4, 12, 20, 2021. The Pearl Fishers was last seen in 2013.

Attila by Giuseppe Verdi. Attila the Hun has conquered most of Western Europe and is about to take Rome itself, but is brought to his knees by his love for a female warrior, Odabella. To avenge her lost father, she will carry out a plan that leaves even her lover believing she is a traitor. As Attila approaches what could be his greatest conquest, will Odabella’s plan succeed? Seven performances: March 6, 9, 11, 14, 17, 19, 21, 2021. Attila was last seen in 2007.

Ticket Information
Subscriptions for the 2020-2021 Season will be available for renewal March 2, 2020 online at SarasotaOpera.org, by phone at (941) 328-1300, and at the Sarasota Opera Box Office. Subscription purchases completed before April 15, 2020 will receive a special early subscriber discount of 15%. Single tickets for the 2020-2021 season will go on sale exclusively online at SarasotaOpera.org August 1, 2020 and at the Sarasota Opera Box Office on September 1, 2020. For more information on the 2020/2021 season, visit SarasotaOpera.org, call (941) 328-1300, or visit the box office at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34236.

About Sarasota Opera

Sarasota Opera is entering its 61st 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. The following year 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 Artists 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.

Sarasota Opera is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Programs are supported in part by an award from the Tourist Development Tax through the Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council and the Sarasota County Arts Council. Additional funding is provided by the City of Sarasota and the County of Sarasota.

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