SARASOTA (WSNN) – For all our Opera lovers out there, the winter festival is coming for you! And yes, there will be in-person performances, with some changes, of course.
“We are in a business that I think has been one of the hardest hit because of this pandemic and we’ll maintain that way for a long time,” Sarasota Opera’s Executive Director Richard Russell said.
The Sarasota Opera cancelled all fall productions and the end of this year’s winter season.
“As an opera-goer and a lover, it was sad,” Sarasota county resident, Ron Archbold said. “It was sad for us the patrons, it was sadder for the performers who lost their livelihood and their source of income.”
Executive Director, Richard Russell says the opera held four concerts this fall, two in-house and two outdoors. Now, Sarasota Opera is redesigning its 2021 Winter-Spring Opera Festival with four operas, featuring smaller casts and orchestra.
“We’ve looked for pieces that are short enough that we can perform without an intermission, so the longest opera that we’re doing is an hour and 25 minutes, but we will be doing that opera as it was intended to do,” Artistic Director & Principal Conductor, Maestro Victor DeRenzi said.
They’re producing The Happy Deception (L’inganno felice) by Gioachino Rossini, Maid to Mistress (La serva padrona) by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Il signor Bruschino by Gioachino Rossini, and Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell.
The company taking precautions.
“They’re going to have a lot of testing done during the time that they’re here,” Russell said. “They’ll be living in our company housing, for the most part, so we’ll be able to keep them safe, keep them apart from people, and limit their interactions with others in the community as well so that they’re able to work together safely.”
And so will audience members.
“We’ve closed off every other row, within a row, seats are distanced by about three seats, which is about six feet, and we’re requiring our audience to wear a mask while they’re in the theater,” Russell said.
They’re live-streaming all their performances and limiting the audience in-house to about 20-percent capacity; from about 1100 people to just under 300.
“This is a temporary situation,” DeRenzi said. “What makes opera great is that it is live music that you see in your community.”
“Very excited that we’re going to do operas that I have never seen,” Archbold said. “I think the safety in that opera house is going to be fabulous. And I think given what I saw in the fall concert, I felt very safe. And I don’t want to see people cancel their subscription out of fear.”
Come January, tickets go on sale.