Sarasota Opera’s ‘Il trovatore’ shines amid jam-packed winter festival

Kurt Loft | 20 MAR 2026

You don’t have to travel to Bayreuth or New York to attend four different operas in three days. Sarasota will do just fine.

That’s an option during the ongoing winter festival at Sarasota Opera, a cultural gem in this white-beach paradise on Florida’s west coast, where snowbirds jam restaurants, hotels, and concert halls. Many come for the multiple “Opera Lovers Weeks,” a marathon that includes Puccini’s La bohème, Lehár’s Merry Widow, Floyd’s Susannah, and Verdi’s Il trovatore. The company offers 20 performances of four rotating productions over 20 days, including three in one weekend.

Joyce Griffin-Sobel of New York, a subscriber to the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and the New York Philharmonic, views her visits to Sarasota as a cultural pilgrimage.

“The Sarasota Opera selection includes some of my favorites and others that are new to me, and in an environment that isn’t swaddled in arctic temperatures,” she said. “I would attend every night of my life if I could.”

Offering these back-to-back assemblies isn’t easy in the intimate 1,100-seat Mediterranean revival theater—built exactly a century ago—which keeps workers scrambling with sets, blocking positions, and flown scenery.

“We take a ton of photos, and we measure everything,” said Emily Stafford, stage director for the Verdi. “It’s a real test to see what set pieces go where, and we’re constantly repacking the backstage area.”

General director Richard Russell said limited space dictates how many operas can be stored at one time and the size of each production, making something like Aida all but impossible. But the team fits things together because “we recognize that more people are coming to see the entire season in a short span.”

The Sarasota Opera, founded in 1960, is the only American company, other than the Met, to offer four operas over three or four days. Of its 25,000 subscribers and single ticket buyers, about 8,000 travel each winter from outside the region or state. Many will be attending an April 11 event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the historic opera house on Pineapple Avenue in the heart of the city.

A recent Sunday matinee offered a convincingly sung and staged Il trovatore, adding to the company’s reputation as “Verdi’s American home.” This focus on the revered Italian composer includes his complete works—all 27 operas, revised versions, and rarities—over three decades. Completed in 2016, the cycle was the brainchild of conductor and artistic director Victor DeRenzi, who steps down this season after 44 years at the helm, where he has overseen 1,500 performances of 218 productions of a variety of operas.

Il trovatore is not a pleasant story (what opera is?), involving the murder of an innocent baby, a vengeful kidnapping, and the inadvertent execution of a brother—to name but three plot twists. The opera has a unique theatrical symmetry, not only in its division into eight scenes with brief pauses and a single intermission, but also in its musical equilibrium and tensions, all of which make the libretto’s dramatic inconsistencies disappear.

The March 15 performance showcased the company’s adroit handling of Verdi, enhanced by a strong cast of singers who served as both opposing and unifying forces. Throughout the three-hour performance, the group delivered bel canto solos and duets with a visceral edge, every word clear and precise—their schemes abetted by an alert chorus and resilient pit orchestra.

The famed “Anvil Chorus” was rousing fun, tenor Victor Starsky as Manrico delivered a ripe and passionate “Di quella pira aria,” and Aviva Fortunata as Leonora offered the opera’s most eloquent moment in her Part IV soliloquy outside the prison tower.

Mezzo-soprano Lisa Chavez as Azucena, baritone Ricardo José Rivera as Conte di Luna, and bass Young Bok Kim as Ferrando delivered full-bodied vocals of tonal weight and power. Rich scenic, costume, and lighting design by Michael Schweikardt, Howard Tsvi Kaplan, and Ken Yunker, respectively, lent chiaroscuro to the 15th-century story set in Spain, making this as much of a treat for the eyes as the ears.

Unfortunately, DeRenzi battled with a chatty audience all day. At the end of each break, he waved his hand in the air, pounded on his podium, and even turned to shout “quiet!” Maybe the company should install a foghorn above the stage. ■

A scene from Sarasota Opera’s production of ‘Il trovatore.’ (courtesy of Sarasota Opera)

EXTERNAL LINKS:

• Sarasota Opera: sarasotaopera.org

About the author:

Kurt Loft is a journalist and music critic who has covered classical music for various publications and arts groups for 45 years. A member of the Music Critics Association of North America, he lives in St. Petersburg. 

Read more by Kurt Loft.

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