Planet Hugill: Letter from Florida: Sarasota Opera’s Winter Pageant

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro – Michelle Johnson Sarasota Opera, 2025 (Picture: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera)

Conductor Louis Lohraseb introduced a buoyant baton to this hum-along music, permitting room for orchestral playfulness and an assortment of vigorous enhances to the motion and performances. Sunlit blushes and reanimating ornamentations and thrives “based mostly on paperwork from the time of Mozart,” informs Lohraseb, have been the conductor’s to impart on this orchestra, and to rank himself a reliable Mozartian.

It’s a true deal with to listen to a voice like Michelle Johnson’s within the position of the Countess. Lustrous and theatre-filling echoes have been produced by this singer, and her take care of a vocal line fits this music rightly. Johnson was well-partnered, theatrically and vocally, with the Susanna right here, Virginia Mims. Ms. Mims has a devoted following in Sarasota, justifiably so. Their one-time Studio Artist has developed right into a splendid and resourceful singing-actor, the like that can be requested to adorn many phases.

Mattia Venni (Figaro) additionally paired nicely with Mims and Johnson. By decibel criterions, Venni could make sounds just like these of Johnson. Venni is aware of the place the opera buffa neighborhood is and located it usually on this Nozze. He tossed off parole, paean, and portrayal with a level of polish.

From what we have now learnt in regards to the composer and his childlike weltanschauung, Mozart was in all probability very empathetic of Cherubino. The Rely’s web page is battling the organic bowing of his adolescent system and the way, by nature, the Countess consumes his each thought.

Lorenzo Da Ponte and Mozart put Cherubino at heart of comedic corners, fertile grounds for buffa bounty. Sarasota Studio Artist Tessa Fackelmann trod nicely on this surroundings. Fackelmann’s neat “Voi che sapate” included phrases with some curious finishes tagged on, inducing the cutes for this character.

Eric Botto did some memorably humorous work as Basilio, and as a choose with fitful fluency – a type of selective vocal paresis is my analysis. Additional attending to the stage, there was a lot comedian aid and slapstick that Mozart himself could have delighted in.

The complete manufacturing and setting (units, scenes, and costumes, and so forth.) invoked photographs of these olden black and white movement photos with opera scenes starring Ezio Pinza, the Marx Brothers, et al. The identical is to be stated of one other opera in repertory, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, quickly to be mentioned.

Verdi: Stiffelio – Sarasota Opera, 2025(Picture: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera)

From at the very least the mid-twentieth century by to the current day, the Giuseppe Verdi opera Stiffelio seems on the world’s phases in diametrically converse numbers to these of Le nozze di Figaro. As a matter of element, a researcher of essential editions of music scores, Kathleen Hansell, finds that Verdi’s unique idea for Stiffelio solely got here full to theatres in 1993. Hansell’s has develop into the prevailing perspective amongst Verdi specialists.

Stiffelio acquired on the radar then, when taken up by main theatres and the title position by established tenors. This probably gave the work extra credulity and a stamp of authenticity as a Verdi opera. Now, Stiffelio has all of the elements of a star car for the leads.

You learn that accurately, sure, leads. All three have items of the dramatic pole revolve round them in proportion; they occupy stage time and music comparably and every has their respective private investments and raison d’etres as characters. Verdi has as a lot purpose to have titled this work Lina or Stankar, as Stiffelio.

Tenor Victor Starsky continues to shine on stage, vocally. With each outing, Starsky lands on the auricle as the real article, and the music of Stiffelio a star car for him. The position of Stiffelio as a complete is a piece in progress. Psychodrama of this nature requires macerating, evaluation and gradual integration. Get your tickets now in case you can. Like Virginia Mims, Starsky has a robust following in Sarasota. He was acquired heartily at curtain.

Aviva Fortunata has her personal causes to seek out this opera a star-making flip as Lina. Fortunata sang with authority and ferocity; if there’s something lacking that makes for the hallmark options of a Verdi soprano, it went undetected. Fortunata has a mournful sob to her instrument that’s particular, distinctive and affixed to the colour of her voice. In toto, this performer walks the stage consistent with generations of star sopranos that got here earlier than her.

On the account of viewers temperature, the Stankar of Ricardo Jose Rivera lifted this efficiency on an excellent airplane to that of Stiffelio and Lina. Rivera moreover lifted and flung his heavy baritone to all 4 corners of the theatre; his vocalizing was stentorian. The effective factors put to it have been rubato clips and collaborative equipoise between he and DeRenzi and instrumentalists. There was nice weight to Stankar’s textual content and temperament. Rivera’s personification positioned Stankar firmly within the place of Rely of the Empire.

Take away a lot of the above, let the refrain stand alone, and also you’d nonetheless acknowledge Verdi. Stiffelio might be credited to the refrain as a lot because the leads. It performs a serious half in creating characters, in plotting the course of occasions, and in resolving theatrical themes. Arthur Bosarge (Refrain Grasp) and Victor DeRenzi (Inventive Director and Principal Conductor) labored in some good meshing of voices to narrate this music drama.

This manufacturing, created for this season’s Stiffelio, frames the motion and helps the story nicely, with atmospheric highlights beneath the evening lit cemetery of Act II and within the recognizable traits and temper of the inside of a church for the ultimate scene.

Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia – Sarasota Opera, 2025(Picture: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera)

Il Barbiere di Siviglia locations eighth on OPERABASE’s prime ten record and was the second carried out in cycle for the 2025 Winter Pageant.

First showing with Sarasota Opera in 2021, as Bertrando in Gioachino Rossini’s L’inganno felice, Christopher Bozeka steps in on brief discover as Almaviva right here to prodigious impact. In Bozeka we have now a connoisseur’s singer and vocal stylist – following the road of the basic leggiero, however with one thing additional; there may be extra voice there, for Pinkerton and Rodolfo, Alfredo and il Duca.

If not altogether Italianate of voiceprint, Bozeka’s artfully sculpted singing has the hallmarks of the aristocratic tenor, within the custom of Alfredo Kraus. What’s extra, Bozeka excels in getting messy, as one would want to in buffa. Thusly, Bozeka additionally brings a lot historical past to the stage, serving a grander function exterior the scope of Sarasota’s Winter Pageant and this Barbiere.

Interpolated excessive notes (one above excessive C), crafted strains with textually confused sparkle – Bozeka makes Almaviva a present unto himself, and on the similar time shares the highlight giftedly and generously. His pairing with the Rosina of Lisa Marie Rogali was skilled and easy, a fortunate and wonderful assembly of sizes and timbres. That each these performers have effective dramatic style, and comedic expertise is only a bonus.

Filippo Fontana’s Figaro charmed at first sight however not altogether in methods you’d suppose. Fontana was both enjoying up Figaro’s nervous vitality or settling down from a disarming case of efficiency anxiousness; the performer started cautiously and appeared to ease into the goings-on as different characters entered and took their locations within the story.

There have been sparkles of sparkle in Fontana’s Figaro to make sure, vocal appeal, sure. There was a smile for his half within the duet about metallic (cash) motivations and coronary heart needs. Fontana is aware of this music and labored his wordy strains easily by Bozeka’s prolonged phrasing. Nearing opera’s finish, Fontana’s smiles have been softer and extra in quantity, placing a correct spin on “Zitti, zitti” with Rosina and Almaviva.

Mezzo-soprano Rogali could be each bit the soubrette redolent of Rossini for his Rosina, with humorous habits to enhance Rossini’s music. Her vocal virtuosity was at full tilt when in duet with Bozeka.

The Bartolo of Andrew Gilstrap will go down among the many better of the worst docs and guardians of Rosinas witnessed by this author. This Bartolo soaked in sly sarcasm, interchangeably taking off to a different comedic cosmos and returning to planet earth absurdity, in any respect befitted the byplay.

Conductor Marcello Cormio supplied a few of the most memorable musical moments of this five-opera set in Sarasota. This orchestra presents simply as buoyantly for Cormio, and he presents simply as bouyantly for Rossini, including his personal flashes of aptitude and enjoyable. Cormio subtly dealt with tempi gradations and there have been cheerful shadings from the strings and winds. As in Le Nozze, mentioned earlier than, the recitative accompaniment of the fortepiano was greater than only a interval garnish.

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana – Sarasota Opera, 2025(Picture: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera)

We want not reference sources to ascribe the dimensions of significance and prominence to Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci as music dramas within the veristic custom. It’s irrespective of of surprise these have been chosen to open the 2025 Winter Pageant in Sarasota.  

Sarasota Opera Inventive Director and Principal Conductor Victor DeRenzi paints contained in the strains of Mascagni and Leoncavallo, musically spelling out how these works have been besherted and maintain dates on calendars wherever opera is carried out. All that’s leftover from DeRenzi’s strategy is a gourmand’s appreciation for the morbidezza of those bulwarks of the Italian opera repertoire.

The very first notes of the prelude have been marked by tight cohesion and a young carry. The strings performed with luster and the percussions with chunk. The prelude, and later the Intermezzos of every opera, supplied the sort of enjoying that tugs on the ear like a fond chorus to these turning into acquainted, and nicely after la commedia e finita. To these of us all too conversant in these, it has the identical impact, to our nice consternation.

Rafael Davila sang in heart-aching stride with the harp (Giuseppina Ciarla) and its forlorn strumming within the “Siciliana.” It could be thought-about a stroke of luxurious casting to lure Davila away from worldwide theatres however, you see, he’s as a son coming back from operatic triumph in Sarasota, having constructed an early profession right here as a daily customer. Davila is the corporate’s David and Edith Chaifetz Endowed Artist for 2025.  

Considerably like Sarasota Opera, Davila appears to have made the mandatory changes to broaden on and lengthen his efficiency profile. He retains a naturally interesting sound that this author needs to take pleasure in for a lot of a day to come back. The tenor is extra measured, protecting this aspect of his voice’s heart of gravity. In greater tessitura, this equals getting from word A to notice B. Davila additionally is aware of simply how a lot to present of himself dramatically.

With the tougher and extra emotional investments to come back, Davila completed the Mascagni in skilled type, saving himself for his view of Canio.

When Davila cultivates the lyricism in these roles, he achieves a degree of efficiency that’s fairly successful. He was capable of return to this type of remedy all the best way into “No, pagliaccio non son!” Turridu and Canio back-to-back is yeoman’s work for essentially the most champion on this repertoire – Davila has this nicely in hand. Subsequent cease, Andrea Chenier. Get your tickets now in case you can.

Santuzza is a job that sits ideally in Lisa Chavez’s voice, and it’s apparent she sympathizes with this character. Plush in tone, abetted by an appreciation for legato, clear transmission and articulation of textual content – Chavez is The Jan Schmidt Endowed Artist for Sarasota this season.

The savory shock of the season could also be baritone Jean Carlos Rodriguez. In full opera type, Rodriguez’s voice has nice presence, full and fetchingly resonant as it’s.

Rodriguez holds the stage with authority – sufficiently as Alfio, fairly. He held the stage pointedly plus as Tonio. He was a shallow and crushed creature, lecherous and loathsome to the viewers; this stole any compassion it may need for him and swole any compassion it may need for Nedda, performed by Ashley Milanese on this matinee present of Pagliacci.  

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci – Sarasota Opera, 2025(Picture: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera)

There may be sufficient in Ms. Milanese to forecast an operatic profession full of joyous adventures and heat viewers responses, just like the soprano soaked in now. The voice is on the principle lyric. It’s full and tasks nicely, with a heat heart and a tear whose origins serve up an exquisite bouquet invocative of her household identify. Is that the Adriatic, the Mediterranean possibly? Milanese additional makes use of her inherently communicative voice to full benefit, and he or she strikes a fetching determine on stage.

It’s comprehensible that Nedda is so tempted as to place her complete clown troupe profession on the road for the Silvio of Benjamin Dickerson. This baritone is a complete lot of man – tall, broad shouldered and as good-looking and characterful of voice as of visage.

As Peppe, Alejandro Luevanos’ uncommon tenor voice (he might be the subsequent to interchange Steve Perry in Journey) is a welcome little bit of casting in one among opera’s most enigmatic roles. Anticipation grew – what would Luevanos do with Arlecchino’s ditty? This can be a good even sound with hardly a discernible register break.

One other aural balm function of this season got here in type of the choral work in Pagliacci. The musical minds in Sarasota joined with Leoncavallo’s to tribute the composer’s masterpiece of group singing. This was a glowing achievement within the matching and stationing of voices. The females have been significantly profound of their telling of this story.

What’s subsequent for Sarasota Opera? “We work with the music for the music’s sake and by no means in a means that tries to seek out one thing that isn’t there.” In Victor DeRenzi’s dialog with Sarasota performers, that is however one of many encapsulations of the corporate’s operatic weltanschauung and what future seasons portend.

One factor sure to be a think about “what’s subsequent” is “what got here earlier than,” recognized to you additionally as historical past. Stewardship of the artform’s historical past is on the forefront of the inventive minds that meet at Sarasota Opera. A type of minds sits atop Common Director Richard Russell: “We create as genuine an expertise as we will, attempting to do justice to the nice works entrusted to us.”

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro – Sarasota Opera, 2025(Picture: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera)

Tuesday March 25, 2025 at 7pm
Le nozze di Figaro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, music
Lorenzo Da Ponte, textual content
2006 Sarasota Opera Manufacturing

Conductor: Louis Lohraseb
Refrain Grasp: Arthur Bosarge
Stage Director: Tom Diamond

Costume Designer: Howard Tsvi Kaplan
Lighting Designer: Ken Yunker
Set Designer: J. Michael Wingfield
Hair and Make-up Designer: Sue Schaefer
Assistant Conductors: Denis Uz, Curtis Serafin
Choreographer: Diane Partington
Surtitle Provider: Phrases for Music
Surtitle Translator: Victor DeRenzi

Solid
Figaro: Mattia Venni
Susanna: Virginia Mims
Countess Almaviva: Michelle Johnson
Rely Almaviva: Jake Stamatis
Cherubino: Tessa Fackelmann
Bartolo: Brian Kontes
Marcellina: Lauren Paul
Bartolo: Brian Kontes
Basilio: Eric Botto
Don Curzio: Eric Botto
Barbarina: Xochitl Hernandez
Antonio: Steven Broth
 
Wednesday March 26, 2025 at 7:30pm
Stiffelio
Giuseppe Verdi, music
Francesco Maria Piave, libretto
New Manufacturing

Conductor: Victor DeRenzi
Refrain Grasp: Arthur Bosarge
Stage Director: Stephanie Sundine

Costume Designer: Howard Tsvi Kaplan
Lighting Designer: Ken Yunker
Set Designer: Steven C. Kemp
Hair and Make-up Designer: Sue Schaefer
Assistant Conductors: Stefano Teani, Fabio Gentili, Chloe Jihee Kim
Struggle Choreographer: India Marie Paul
Surtitle Provider: Phrases for Music
Surtitle Translator: Victor DeRenzi

Solid
Stiffelio: Victor Starsky
Lina: Aviva Fortunata
Rely Stankar: Ricardo José Rivera
Raffaele: Jeremy Brauner
Jorg: Younger Bok Kim
Frederico di Frengel: Juan Hernandez

Thursday March 27, 2025 at 1:30pm
Il barbiere de Siviglia
Gioachino Rossini, music
Cesare Sterbini, poetry
2008 Sarasota Opera Manufacturing

Conductor: Marcello Cormio
Refrain Grasp: Arthur Bosarge
Stage Director: Marco Nistico

Scenic Designer: Jeffrey W. Dean
Costume Designer: Howard Tsvi Kaplan
Lighting Designer: Ken Yunker
Hair and Make-up Designer: Sue Schaefer
Assistant Conductors: Deniz Uz, Chloe Jihee Kim
Surtitle Provider: Phrases for Music
Surtitle Translator: Victor DeRenzi

Solid
Rely Almaviva: Christopher Bozeka
Don Bartolo: Andrew Gilstrap
Rosina: Lisa Marie Rogali
Figaro: Filippo Fontana
Don Basilio: Younger Bok Kim
Berta: Alexandra Kzeski
Fiorello: John Potvin
Ambrogio: Collin Lahood
An official: Zeky Nadji

Saturday March 29, 2025 at 1:30pm
Cavalleria rusticana
Pietro Mascagni, music
Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, libretto
2005 Sarasota Opera Manufacturing

Conductor: Victor DeRenzi
Refrain Grasp: Arthur Bosarge
Stage Director: Martha Collins

Scenic Designer: David P. Gordon
Costume Designer: Howard Tsvi Kaplan
Lighting Designer: Ken Yunker

Hair and Make-up Designer: Sue Schaefer
Assistant Conductors: Stefano Teani, Fabio Gentili, Curtis Serafin
Surtitle Provider: Phrases for Music
Surtitle Translator: Stephanie Sundine

Solid
Santuzza: Lisa Chavez
Turiddu: Rafael Dávila
Alfio: Jean Carlos Rodríguez

Pagliacci
Ruggero Leoncavallo, music and textual content
2005 Sarasota Opera Manufacturing

Conductor: Victor DeRenzi
Refrain Grasp: Arthur Bosarge
Youth Opera Refrain Grasp: Jesse Martins
Stage Director: Martha Collins

Scenic Designer: David P. Gordon
Costume Designer: Howard Tsvi Kaplan
Lighting Designer: Ken Yunker
Hair and Make-up Designer: Sue Schaefer
Assistant Conductors: Stefano Teani, Fabio Gentili, Curtis Serafin
Surtitle Provider: Phrases for Music
Surtitle Translator: Stephanie Sundine

Solid
Nedda: Ashley Milanese
Canio: Rafaele Davila
Tonio: Jean Carlos Rodriguez
Peppe/Arlecchino: Alejandro Luevanos
Silvio: Benjamin Dickerson

Sarasota Opera started attracting worldwide consideration with
the Masterworks Revival Sequence, which presents uncared for works of inventive
advantage and made historical past in 2016 by finishing the Verdi Cycle, a 28-season
effort to provide each work written by Giuseppe Verdi. Sarasota Opera is now
the one opera firm on the planet to have introduced each work, in each
model and Maestro DeRenzi is the one conductor to have performed all of the
composer’s works. Sarasota is extensively thought-about Verdi’s house within the United
States, and second solely to the composer’s house in Busseto, Italy.

As destination-opera par
excellence, individuals from all corners of the world come for Sarasota Opera’s
Winter season, with its world-class productions that vary from early Italian
Bel Canto to up to date American opera. After the $20 million-dollar historic
renovation and restoration of a 1926 constructing in 2008, Sarasota Opera Home has
been described as “a pleasant 1000 seat artwork deco Opera Home, whose acoustics
are very good (Opera journal).”