LIBRETTO FALL 2025 | ISSUE 163
Mozart at Sarasota Opera BY RICHARD RUSSELL
W
hile Sarasota Opera is well known was “Verdi’s American Home”, the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have been an important part of our repertoire over the 67-season history of the company. From the early days at the Historic Asolo Theater until today, these works of a genius have featured prominently on our stages.
first resident company in the city. They would reappear annually until 1973, with the support of the Asolo Opera Guild. In 1974 a new homegrown company, the Asolo Opera Company, would take over. When they moved to the former Edwards Theatre, reopened as the Sarasota Opera House in 1984, the company would be renamed Sarasota Opera.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune proclaimed the “1st Opera in Area’s History Opens Feb. 27”, on January 20, 1960, in anticipation of a season of opera at the Asolo Theatre, presented by the Turnau Opera Players. It was not strictly true. There had been opera in Sarasota as early as 1926, at the Edwards Theatre (now the Sarasota Opera House) and there had even been performances of the genre at the Asolo Theater when it opened in 1952 and again with a visit of New York City Opera in 1958. However, the Turnau Opera Players, a touring company based out of Woodstock, NY, would become the
It was a gala evening when Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti (the last word misspelled in the Herald Tribune’s review) was presented as the first offering of the new company. The opera was sung in English. There was no chorus or orchestra and it was accompanied by a single piano, played by music director Karlos Moser. Scenery was minimal but the review notes that the period costumes blended well with the décor of the historic venue. Artists included bass Spiro Malas as Don Alfonso, who would appear often with the New York City and the Metropolitan Operas (and in one episode of Sex and the City)
Virginia Mims and Mattia Venni in Sarasota Opera’s 2025 production of Le nozze di Figaro. Photo by Rod Millington.
and mezzo-soprano Nancy Williams, who would have a distinguished career in regional opera, as well as at the Met. She would later retire to Sarasota with her husband, conductor Edward Alley, who served on Sarasota Opera’s board. Così fan tutte (to spell it correctly) would appear in another five seasons at the Asolo Theater and debuted at the Sarasota Opera House in 1990, the first of five appearances there (including the current season) and for many years was the opera most performed here (a position now held by La bohème). That wasn’t the only Mozart opera performed in that first season. His short opera The Impresario was also given as part of a double-bill with Ravel’s The Spanish Hour (L’Heure espagnole). That would be the only season that Sarasota would hear this short, delightful work.
An article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune about the first performance of the Turnau Opera Player’s Così fan tutte.
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