Sarasota Opera announced the 2023-2024 opera season in a press conference on the main stage of the Sarasota Opera House today. It will feature four exciting operatic productions, with a company premiere, a revival of a Sarasota Opera favorite and two works that have not been performed in more than a decade. There will also be a popular concert featuring an orchestra and Sarasota Youth Opera’s industry-leading production.
In view of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and two major storms in the past season, the company has decided to shorten the autumn opera season by one year. Instead of an autumn production, the company presents two performances of a concert with works by Giacomo Puccini, one of the most popular opera composers. This will be performed by five soloists and continues the partnership with the Sarasota Orchestra conducted by Victor DeRenzi. The Sarasota Youth Opera will also perform Benjamin Britten’s The Little Sweep in a favorite production.
The 2024 Winter Opera Festival, which runs from February 17 to March 24, 2024, will feature four productions. The festival opens on February 17 with Carmen by Georges Bizet, a company favourite, last seen in 2018. Gaetano Donizetti’s brooding masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor, last performed in 2012, returns on February 24th. Giuseppe Verdi’s Luisa Miller, last performed almost 25 years ago, opens on March 9th. The festival concludes with the Sarasota Opera premiere of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Fraud (L’infedeltà delusa), a charming comedy that has not been fully staged by a professional American opera company in the United States since 1971.
Subscriptions for the 2023-2024 season can be renewed online at SarasotaOpera.org and at the Sarasota Opera Box Office on Monday, March 20. Single tickets for the 2023-2024 season will go on sale on September 1, 2023. For more information about the 2023-2024 season, please contact the Sarasota Opera Box Office at (941) 328-1300, visit us in person at 61 N Pineapple Avenue in downtown Sarasota, or online at SarasotaOpera.org.
Autumn season 2023
November 10 at 7:30 p.m
November 12 at 3:00 p.m
Giacomo Puccini’s operas are among the most popular in the repertoire. Sarasota Opera soloists will present favorite selections from these magnificent works in collaboration with the Sarasota Orchestra conducted by Victor DeRenzi.
Libretto by Eric Crozier
Sarasota Youth Opera production
4 November at 5:00 p.m
5 November at 12:30 p.m
Sarasota Youth Opera will present a revival of our acclaimed production of Britten’s charming opera The Little Sweep. A group of children, with the help of a friendly nanny, work to free a young apprentice chimney sweep from his cruel master. Last seen in 2018 and written to introduce young people to opera, this enchanting work will delight children and adults alike.
Opera Festival Winter Season 2024
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy
Based on the story of the same name by Prosper Mérimée
12 performances: February 17 – March 22
17, 20, 22, 25 Feb (matinee), 28 Feb, 2 Mar (matinee), 5 Mar, 8, 13, 17, 19 Mar (matinee ), 22
Carmen, the seductive and enigmatic heroine of Bizet’s opera, has seduced life-changing Corporal Don José into being with her. When her interest turns to the charismatic bullfighter Escamillo, José’s angry jealousy leads to disaster. Opera lovers and newcomers alike will bask in some of opera’s most iconic music!
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor
8 performances: February 24 – March 23
Feb 24, 27, 29, March 3 (matinee), March 6, 10 (matinee), March 16, 23
In Donizetti’s masterpiece, based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor, deceit breeds murder and madness. To save his family’s fortune, Enrico Ashton has promised his sister Lucia’s hand in hand to a Scottish nobleman instead of to the man she loves, Edgardo, a member of a rival family. The ensuing drama is thrillingly captured in Donizetti’s wonderfully romantic music, with many well-known operatic highlights, including Lucia’s famous mad scene.
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Based on Cabal and Love by Friedrich von Schiller
6 performances: March 9th – 24th
9, 12, 14, 16 March (matinee), 20, 24 March (matinee)
Luisa Miller, one of Giuseppe Verdi’s less acted but passionately romantic dramas, returns to Sarasota Opera after 25 years. Luisa, the daughter of an old soldier, is in love with Carlo, who is actually Rodolfo, the son of the ruthless Count Walter. The Count’s opposition to the couple’s love leads to tragedy in an opera full of memorable arias and gripping ensembles.
Outwitted Fraud (L’infedeltà delusa) by Joseph Haydn
Libretto by Marco Coltellini
5 performances: March 15-23
March 15, 17 (matinee), March 19, 21, 23 (matinee)
Franz Joseph Haydn is one of the most famous composers of classical music, but his extensive operatic work is virtually unknown. In the delightful comedy L’infedeltà delusa, farmer Filippo hopes his daughter Sandrina will marry rich farmer Nencio. However, she is in love with a poor farmer whose sister is in love with Nencio. All is happily resolved through a series of comic complications (including a parade of disguises), accompanied by Haydn’s inventive score and brilliant singing. This will be a Sarasota Opera premiere and the first fully staged professional production in the United States in over 50 years.
