Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007 - (Page 35)

Arts & Culture Magazine : : PERFORMING ARTS ‘07 doubling its annual budget from 3.1 million to 7 million dollars. She has overseen the reinvention of all functions of the organization—marketing, fundraising, and working with Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi on programming. Until this renovation, the most a capital fund drive had raised was 1.5 million dollars. For this new dramatic overhaul, it is around the 47 million mark. Administrative offices have moved across the street to the high rise building on Five Corners. The pavilion on Pineapple Avenue will house the new box office, as well as the opera library, a multi-purpose meeting room, and a large rehearsal space. The main lobby in the theater will have a satellite box office for will call tickets. According to Danis, “The major priorities of the renovation are to give the audience a different level of amenities and to improve the stage.” In practice, that will mean more bathrooms, a revamped lobby, and private dining room and donor lounges on the third floor. By the time the new season opens in March of 2008, there also will be 140 additional seats, bringing audience capacity close to 1,200. Considering the stellar success of the company—last season it sold out 102 percent of the house—that represents a welcome expansion. On the production side, the orchestra pit has been enlarged and stage systems are being modernized. Artistic Director DeRenzi is excited about the changes. “It will allow us to finish our Verdi Cycle and do the big operas, Don Carlos, Otello and Aida, which we couldn’t perform before,” he says. “We will be able to do more Wagner, too, and investigate different repertoire.” DeRenzi started the Verdi Cycle in 1989, with the goal of performing every opera by the great Italian composer, including all alternate versions. Depending on who you talk to, that means 27 or 33 operas. “Verdi is probably the greatest dramatist of the nineteenth century,” says DeRenzi, who is in the 33 opera camp. “Most people know his operas only through recordings, but they really need to see them in the theater to get the full experience. Besides being a great musician, Verdi was also a great man of the theater.” As a result of the Verdi Cycle and the Masterpiece Series, which focuses on rarely heard operas that deserve another hearing, Sarasota Opera has developed an international reputation for new and unusual repertoire. “We did the American premiere of The Sicilian Vespers in the French version, the way Verdi first wrote it,” DeRenzi says. “It was the first production anywhere in a hundred years.” Audiences come from all over the world. “In 2000, when we did Verdi’s Elvira, people traveled here from Germany, England and Spain just to see this opera,” says DeRenzi. He enjoys the challenge of looking for composers for the Masterpiece Series and gets energized when he comes across an opera hardly anyone knows in this country, such as last season’s Halka by Moniusko. How does he find these forgotten rarities? Sometimes he hears a recording or reads an article about them. “They may not become part of the standard repertoire, but I feel they should be heard,” he says. He points to Nielsen’s Masquerade and Montemezzi’s The Love of Three Kings, as pieces that deserve wider audiences. This will be his 26th season with the company, and DeRenzi shows no signs of slowing down. When asked if all the bustle of activity Madama Butterfly. Photo by Deb Hesser. Courtesy of the Sarasota Opera. isn’t making him tired, he laughs and says, “Not at all. How can you get tired of music?” He looks forward to completing the Verdi Cycle in 2013 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth and bringing many new works to Sarasota audiences. In the meantime, he and Danis are planning to expand the company by offering a fall season and mounting at least one fully produced opera in 2008. “We’re looking at a two opera model as well,” Danis explains. “Considering the cost benefits that come with doing two we might as well go for it.” While actually titles are still up in the air, no doubt they will be popular crowd pleasers from the top 10 opera list. “Our audiences love the romantic operas,” DeRenzi says knowingly. The Sarasota Opera House is located at 61 N. Pineapple Ave. Call the Box Office at 941.366.8450 or visit www.sarasotaopera.org for more information. arts and culture magazine : : 61 http://www.sarasotaopera.org http://www.sarasotaopera.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007

Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007 Contents Extra! Extra! Modern Times Gallery Interview - Jopseph Caulkins Exhibitions Dodi Reifenberg and Bradley Wester Profiles Center Stage Carnevale Horse Feathers Grill & Lounge Dancing on the Stage of Life Gallery Guide Calendar of Events

Arts & Culture Magazine - November/December 2007

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