LIBRETTO FALL 2024 | ISSUE 159
SARASOTA YOUTH OPERA
Celebrating 40 Years BY RICHARD RUSSELL, GENERAL DIRECTOR
While Sarasota Opera has always prided itself on the quality of our mainstage performances, the commitment to education has been just as an important part of our mission. This season we mark the 40th anniversary of the Sarasota Youth Opera, the innovative program that has been one of our proudest achievements and which has made Sarasota Opera one of the country’s leaders in arts education. The effort began in the fall of 1984, with the formation of the Children’s Opera Companies. Young people in Sarasota, Bradenton, and Venice were introduced to the basics of opera, with nearly 100 members coming together to sing in a concert in the Opera House. In 1986 we began presenting operas for young people to sing, which would become an annual event. The young people in the program would also participate in our mainstage productions. Over the years members could be heard in such operas as Carmen, La bohème, and Pagliacci,
Photo: Deb Hesser
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all of which include an important part for a children’s chorus. Now known as Sarasota Youth Opera, the program is the most comprehensive in the country. Young people from ages 8 to 18 participate in a year-round schedule of activities. When the school year commences in August, they begin rehearsals for their fall Youth Opera production. At the same time, they learn the rudiments of singing and stagecraft. When a youth chorus is needed in the Winter, they begin those rehearsals while preparing for choral performances in the community. In June, the Youth Opera summer camp is an immersive experience that includes singing, learning about the creation of opera, getting first-hand backstage experience, and exploring the multitude of skills it takes to put on an opera. The annual production of a youth opera has led Sarasota Opera to seek out new works, to fill a dearth of material for young voices to sing. Since 1989 six
new operas have been commissioned by the company. Sarasota Youth Opera’s commission of Little Nemo in Slumberland by Daron Hagen and J.D. McClatchy inspired the “Opera for All Voices” program in which a consortium of companies, led by Santa Fe Opera and including Sarasota Opera, have commissioned several works to add to the Youth Opera repertoire. This season’s production of The Hobbit by Dean Burry (first produced in 2008), is one of four operas that received their World or American premiere by Sarasota Youth Opera. Including young people in the life of the opera company has been an important goal of artistic director Victor DeRenzi and the Sarasota Opera staff. One of the objectives is to instill a life-long love of opera in the members and by seeing it firsthand and close-up, many of these young people now have a unique perspective on the art form. A few singers in the program have gone on to professional careers in opera and have been heard on opera stages around the world. Others have turned their love of opera into other careers in the arts with professional roles in arts companies around the country. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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