SARASOTA, Fla. — One of the great things that Florida has to offer opera enthusiasts, particularly purists, is Sarasota Opera, arguably the state’s most prominent opera enterprise. Its 2026 winter festival, Feb. 14–March 29, is presenting a lavish new Merry Widow and previous favorite productions of Il trovatore, Susannah, and La bohème. All of them are staged in consecutive days during Opera Lovers Weeks, from March 11 until the end of the festival, allowing an enthusiast to take in all four in as few as three days — a rare opportunity outside the world’s largest opera houses.
With an annual budget of $10.5 million, Sarasota Opera presents the classics as they were conceived by the composers and librettists. You’ll find no experimental Traviatas, Las Vegas-set Rigolettos, or premieres of new operas here, where the average audience member is well over 55. It’s a traditionalist, conservative approach that sets the company apart, perhaps even secludes it from the mainstream, but the faithful productions are always at the service of the music and the dramaturgy, with excellent singers. All productions I’ve seen have exhibited a symbiosis between principals, chorus, and orchestra, aided by the immediacy afforded by the 1,119-seat Sarasota Opera House, which opened 100 years ago. After renovations, the acoustics were polished to suit operatic voices remarkably well.
I first visited the Sarasota Opera in 2016 for the completion of its Verdi Cycle, a masterstroke by Victor DeRenzi, the artistic director and a Verdi specialist, in which he conducted all of the composer’s music over 28 years — not only the 27 operas, but also alternative versions, concert music, uncompleted works, and juvenilia. DeRenzi, who has been at the helm for 44 years, conducting nearly 900 performances, will retire in May. During a recent visit to Sarasota, I saw four of the winter festival’s operas, with DeRenzi conducting the Italian ones.
The new production of Franz Léhar’s The Merry Widow, directed by Katherine M. Carter and conducted by Anthony Barrese, neatly captured the spirit of the 67-year-old company. The ornate sets by Steven C. Kemp include a stunning garden scene in Act II with trellises and swan-shaped greenery. As the wealthy young widow Hanna Glawari, soprano Raquel González was the star of the evening; her tender, silken voice in the “Vilja” aria was serenely echoed by the company’s perfectly calibrated choir.
Jake Stamatis played a zany County Danilo, pulling the best of the operetta’s many comedic turns as the leader of the ensemble in “Women” (the chorus line refrain translated here as “The study of feminine ways…”). As Valencienne and Camille, Sara Kennedy and Patrick Bessenbacher were a compatible pair, memorably in the “Love in My Heart was Dying” duet. It was a charming new Merry Widow, a work not seen in Sarasota since 1988.
The Trovatore is from the 2014 production by stage director Marco Nisticò created for the Verdi Cycle. It had the strongest cast of the week, though not necessarily the best staging, and the repeated pauses between scenes to change the backdrops bogged down the notably convoluted narrative. Canadian-Italian soprano Aviva Fortunata played a riveting Leonora, with effortless melismas and smooth portamento, especially in her Act I aria, and an anguished emotional turn in Act III with radiant high notes. She delivered a firestorm duet with tenor Victor Starsky as Manrico after his sensational aria “Ah! si, ben mio.”
Puerto Rican baritone Ricardo José Rivera was an imposing, wild-eyed Count di Luna, projecting with a rumbling, penetrating voice. He delivered a burbling “Il balen del suo sorriso” in Act II. It was an exceptional take on the obsessive Count. But the performance that proved unforgettable was by mezzo-soprano Lisa Chavez as Azucena, the unhinged gypsy who in the backstory watches her mother burn at the stake — a tale retold early in the opera by Ferrando, here played by Young Bok Kim, a company veteran who also plays Colline in the current Bohème.
Chavez has a dark, slightly raspy tone that allows her to shift between emotions ever so slightly, often adding a torturous undercurrent to the words. It was a riveting performance. Before Manrico’s execution at the end, the excellent offstage choir lent a ghost-like echo to the impending doom. A misstep in the medieval-Spain setting was the use of certain cutout props, like flat trees or painted backdrops, which contrasted unfavorably with the rest of the staging — likely the limitations of the relatively small venue.
Some of this was also true of the production for the McCarthy-era drama Susannah — produced for the centennial of composer Carlisle Floyd’s birth — with an old-time staging by Martha Collins. Soprano Hanna Brammer, dazzling in the title role, captured the spiritual and social downfall of the character. She made her Sarasota Opera debut as an apprentice artist in 2016 and has appeared in several roles since, most recently as Fiordiligi in 2025’s Così fan tutte.
Brammer’s fully committed performance let you witness her character’s decline from an innocent and carefree small-town girl in rural Tennessee to a victim of jealousy, mass hysteria, and sexual assault. Brammer sang with a glowing soprano, booming in her chest voice, with a resonance that belied her small frame. In the high register, she let her vibrato ring out naturally, even if something about her belting at times felt forced. In “The trees on the mountain,” the opera’s signature aria, she added a subtle rubato, altering the flow; in the highest notes, she brought the dynamics down to a comparative whisper in every “come back, come back” to stirring dramatic effect.
Baritone Jason Zacher made his company debut as the evangelist Olin Blitch, who influences the gossipy, sanctimonious congregation that tarnishes Susannah’s reputation. You could almost believe his remorse in his “Hear Me, O Lord” aria after he has his way with Susannah, who, as it turns out, was a virgin. As Sam, Susannah’s brother, tenor Jeremy Brauner gave a convincing portrayal of the character’s initial protectiveness that turns to fecklessness by the end of the story, when an ostracized and demoralized Susannah is forced to stand up for herself.
Floyd’s music, which includes a hoedown fiddle in the square-dance scene, is unabashedly lyrical, often telegraphing the tone of the action too obviously. Conductor Jessé Martins made the most of it, with sustained strings, balanced woodwinds, and clear brasses that let you pick out individual lines. In the four operas, the orchestra played with a burnished, warm blend — it’s an almost dainty sound that DeRenzi has polished over the years, though the ensemble is certainly not incapable of rising up to manic propulsion when the score, and the conductor, calls for it.
DeRenzi was also in the pit for Bohème, which was first presented in 2006 in a production by Stephanie Sundine, DeRenzi’s wife. In most respects, it was the most accomplished staging this season, a picture-perfect execution of the classic opera. The main set pieces — the garret that bookends the action and the elaborate Latin Quarter — largely take after Franco Zeffirelli’s famous production for the Metropolitan Opera.
Leading the strong ensemble, Ashley Milanese sang Mimi with a bronzy soprano and a piercing head voice. Virginia Mims was a coquettish Musetta, delivering a slightly hammy performance, but in a delightful way. South Korean tenor WooYoung Yoon, a wonderful Rodolfo, added subtle dynamic shifts to his arias, highlighted by a delightful “O soave fanciulla,” the beloved duet with Mimi.
Looking ahead, with DeRenzi’s imminent departure, Sarasota Opera is entering a new era in the 2026-2027 season, when Richard Russell, the general director since 2021 — and executive director from 2012 to 2021 — becomes general and artistic director. Under Russell’s leadership, the company is bringing a new production of La traviata, H.M.S. Pinafore (its first Gilbert and Sullivan staging), Hansel and Gretel, Ariadne auf Naxos, and, most promising of all, a new production of Jenůfa. It’ll be worth heading back for a night — or four — at the opera.
