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Newsletter of the Manatee Guild Early Winter 2021

Happenings President’s Message

Preludes/Prologues Happy New Year, and a wish that we may all be back together soon! The Opera is pleased to present the following introductions to the Winter Season . Please While the vaccine distribution has not been stay tuned for instructions to join these meetings nearly fast enough to ensure that we can online. again meet with the degree of security we Monday, 2/8/21 4:00 PM – The Happy Deception, used to know, enough people are getting Carlos Vicente the vaccine that we can begin to contemplate meeting in person. Monday, 2/15/21 4:00 PM – Maid to Mistress, Dr. Peter Shimkin Richard Russell has suggested that MOG might meet in the Tuesday, 3/30/21 4:00 PM – Il signor Bruschino, Courtyard on Scott Guinn the 24th of February at 10:30 Tuesday, 4/6/21 4:00 PM – Dido & Aeneas, a.m. It would be a masked, Rosanne Martorella, PhD socially-distanced, outdoor WEDU Program meeting, with singers, from the balcony, as pictured WEDU is offering a program about Sarasota Opera as here. I would need to know part of their Greater Sarasota series. how many people would be The program “gives an insider’s look into one of interested; we would need a Sarasota’s most iconic arts institutions. You’ll hear the minimum of 20 to make the story of how SO was able to keep operations going event happen. Please email during the pandemic by creating a bubble for their me at [email protected] to performers with extraordinarily tight protocols for indicate your interest. RSVP every department.” by February 20 please.

Watch digitally on wedu.org on Thursday, February Preludes are back! See the dates, operas and presenters at 11 at 6 PM left. Also, WEDU is presenting what will be a very On WEDU television on February 11 at 8 PM interesting and revealing portrait of SO in a pandemic. and on WEDQ on Turesday February 18 at 8 PM. Thank you to Elizabeth Aversa for bringing us a column on SILL Sarasota short operas with many links to performances that will Join SILL interview and performance on Monday, surely entertain us. February 15 at 10:30. Guest is Lisa Chavez, mezzo- And thank you to Syble DiGirolamo for introducing us to at Sarasota Opera. Instructions to view Scott Guinn, a retired and current Director of here. Development at Sarasota Opera. Listen and Learn More About Short Operas The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček. A forester, some animals, and love mix in this short Elizabeth Aversa opera. An OperaWire article by David Salazar along One January soon after retirement I made a new with a YouTube video of the full opera can be found year’s resolution to listen and learn more about opera. here. Sadly, I wasn’t any more successful with that than I Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell. From the was with my resolve to cycle five times a week or to baroque period, this beloved opera is based on get more sleep. In analyzing my failure to listen to an Virgil's Aeneid. An informative article from the New opera a day I realized that many operas are way too York Times by Ellen T. Harris offers contemporary long and that I had a limited number of hours to insight into Dido and Aeneas. See the article here. devote to the resolution. Happily, however, in the Two interesting videos are found here from Teatro process of assessing my failure, I discovered some Comunale , (), and excellent and entertaining short operas that can be here. The latter is an award-winning production of the heard and enjoyed in an hour and a quarter or less. San Francisco Girls Chorus and Voices of Music. An hour on the treadmill can go by quickly when combined with a “little” opera. by . One of the three operas that comprise , this features one Although recordings and videos of some popular of the most beloved in all of opera, “O mio short works like Gianni Schicchi and are easy babbino caro.” A 2011 to find, it is not always easy to locate full videos or production of the composer’s only comedy can be even excerpts from some of the shorter, less accessed here. The video runs 55 minutes, and the frequently performed works. The purpose here, then, production is conducted by . is to provide a brief guide to 10 selected short works with links to media that can be accessed on a cell phone, IPad, or laptop computer. These will be Pagliacci by . A video of the enjoyed by both opera novices and opera regulars. Met Opera’s production from 1994 is the one to watch. Access it here. The video of this play-within-a- Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carlo Menotti. play opera features an all-star cast: , This opera is notable as the first made-for-television Luciano Pavarotti, and , conducted by opera. It is short, tells a familiar tale, and is often . Pagliacci is so frequently paired with performed around the Christmas season for families that the two have been dubbed and children. This video includes an introduction by the shorthand title “Cav/Pag.” Run time for each the composer for the original telecast of December opera is approximately one hour and 15 minutes. 24, 1951. The run time is just under an hour. Rita by . Sarasota Opera subscribers Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartók. This opera packs enjoyed this delightful short opera in 2019, and a lot into its run time of under one hour. The newspapers around Florida noted the departure from psychological drama tells an eerie tale of a new wife longer productions with larger casts. Running about exploring the rooms of her husband’s dark castle. one hour, Rita can’t be considered one of the most Access the production of the Budapest Opera popular selections, but the music is pretty and the story conducted by Sir Georg Solti (2018) here. entertaining. Go to Rita for a 1962 black and white Cavalleria rusticana by . This video. The advantage of this one is that there are perennial favorite runs about one hour and ten English . Another more recently recorded minutes. A video of the full opera, as traditionally performance (in color but without English surtitles) is performed at Teatro alla Scala di Milano and from 2009 and features Wendle Kettle conducting. See conducted by Herbert von Karajan, is available here. it at Rita in Color. A more contemporary treatment was recorded at the by Giacomo Puccini. Considered Salzburg Festival in 2015. Conducted by Christian Puccini’s “mystery opera,” Suor Angelica is part of Il Thielemann, the latter video runs one hour and Trittico. It was said to have been Puccini’s favorite of thirteen minutes and can be accessed here. the three. This may have been because he had a sister of his own who had joined a religious order. The opera Opera, plus others. He made his Sarasota Opera can be heard at Suor Angelica. The third opera of the debut in La bohème as Schaunard. He has also sung at trio is . Carnegie Hall, as Thidias in Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra and singing Mozart’s Solemn Vespers. Il Tabarro by Giacomo Puccini. The final opera in Il Trittico, this one has been described as “Puccini’s Scott is a Southeast Regional Winner and National darkest opera.” From Teatro de la Zarzuela, , Semi-finalist in the National this 1979 video features Placido Domingo and runs Council Auditions. If you would like to know more only 51 minutes. Access it at Il Tabarro. It is about his singing career, there is a good bio posted interesting to note that David Salazar, editor in chief of here. OperaWire, ranked Puccini’s triptych third among the prolific composer’s works. In his view, it was bested Scott transitioned his singing career into an Arts only by and La Boheme. Administration career in 2011, first as Assistant to the (“Ranking Giacomo Puccini’s Operas from Least to Executive Director at Sarasota Opera and Best,” OperaWire, December 22, 2018.) subsequently as Associate Director of Artistic This opera season (Winter 2021) in Sarasota will give Administration at Florida Grand Opera, Individual us the opportunity to experience three additional short Giving Associate at Asolo Repetory (followed operas which we may not have seen before. Rossini by promotions to Major Gifts Associate and Interim composed both The Happy Deception and Il Signor Development Director), and Director of Development Bruschino; Maid to Mistress by Giovanni Battista at Knoxville Opera. He joined Sarasota Opera’s Pergolesi will complete the season. Development Team as Senior Individual Giving Officer in February, 2020 and was promoted to Director of There are many additional short operas suitable for Development in July when Stacy Ridenour became a listening as we walk, work out, or simply sit and enjoy. part-time employee. But if we’re running a marathon or an Iron Man competition, there’s always Wagner’s Die As MOG members know, my favorite question in these Meistersinger von Nürnberg. It can run over 5 hours! articles is: “What is it that sparks joy in your life?” Scott’s first answer to this question was simply “Opera”. So, I narrowed the question to “What about Opera during this last year?” His response was: “Well, Introducing Scott Guinn by Syble DiGirolamo I knew the people on the Development team at Sarasota Opera (Stacy Ridenour, Brenda Tamm, Scott Guinn was raised in Texas Elizabeth Valkanas, and Michael Ayers), and I knew and became a successful Opera their work. That I appreciated when I took the job. singer debuting with Lyric Opera What has blown me away over the last year is their Cleveland in 1999. Thus, we can total team spirit of working together, depending on conclude immediately, that he is and supporting each other and their joyous attitude determined and focused when he about reaching out to our Opera community.” When I discovers his life’s passions. asked for examples, he cited The Giving Challenge, a (Perhaps I generalize too much, reimagined Taste of Downtown, and the Year End but Texas & Opera don’t really go Appeal. All three greatly exceeded the development together in my mind). And now, goals, and Scott was very inspired by the amount of to our great benefit, he is the support. His excitement, though, came from the passionate about his work with Sarasota Opera, the breadth of the support in the community, and from Development Team, and our patrons. getting to talk individually with so many of our patrons. Scott says: “Every single donation felt like an Scott’s singing career included both leading and acknowledgement from the community that Sarasota supporting baritone roles with Opera, Opera was important to them and each one became Lyric Opera Cleveland, Asheville Opera, Knoxville the motivation for us to work even harder to continue calls Comfort Food, is a mixture of Southern & Italian to bring live Opera to our community. It is the Cuisines. inspiring community support that is getting us through the Covid pandemic.” Finally, lest I leave the impression that Scott is a total homebody, he did say he yearns for those weekend And back to my question: adventure trips to have new experiences and to “What is it that sparks joy explore new places, and then he described several in your life - in addition to past trips with a lot of joy in his Opera?” His response voice. I left the conversation with w a s “ M y h u s b a n d “Homebody, Jonathan Courtemanche.” maybe not so Scott has always been a much.” h o m e b o d y , t o t a l l y enjoying his time spent S o , M O G alone. Sharing that m e m b e r s , “alone” experience has Scott and I been truly joyful for him. both wish you JOY in 2021 I agreed that one of the Photo by Cliff Roles Sarasota Opera Winter Season good aspects of the pandemic Photography 2021. was spending more time with my husband Peter, but stated Sarasota Opera Winter Season 2021 that I was really tired of this in-the-house isolation. Scott expressed no such tiredness. In true homebody The Happy Deception. by , spirit, he is totally content and joyful with spending his by Giuseppe Maria Foppa time at home. A duchess disappears and then washes up on a beach in a small mining town. A kind miner takes her in and So, of course, my follow up cares for her, until ten years later when her grieving question was “Doing what?” husband and his entourage pay a visit. Abduction, Scott then told me about his menace, passion, and comedy all swirl towards a happy two Manatee County Rescue conclusion. dogs — Henry VIII and February 12, 17, 23, and 25 at 7:30 Elizabeth I (better known as February 14, 20 at 1:30

Henry and Bess). See photo of Livestream: February 22 - March 31 Scott with Henry. Walking the Maid to Mistress, by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, with dogs, roughhousing with the libretto by Gennaro Federico. dogs, and just sitting with a dog on your lap are all A wealthy older bachelor grows impatient with his pleasures. saucy young maid and resolves to find a wife to care for him properly. The maid has other ideas and schemes to And then Scott recommended a book (and a You Tube get the promotion she desires — bride and mistress of Channel) - “Pasta Grannies: The Official Cookbook: the home. The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks.” And the February 19, 24, March 2 at 7:30 conversation was off on one of my favorite topics, February 21, 27 at 1:30 Food. Scott learned to cook at his grandmothers’ Livestream, February 22 - March 24 elbow. So, his cooking adventures are a walk down Il Signor Bruschino by Gioachino Rossini, libretto by memory lane. He loves making cakes, decorating Giuseppe Maria Foppa them, and bringing joy to the table when serving the cakes. He is still mastering cookies, and has done This lighthearted operatic comedy opens with one of some bread making. His style of cooking, which he Rossini’s most innovative and playful . Anxious young lovers navigate their way through meddling between groups and no fewer than three seats on parents, an arranged marriage, and a case of mistaken either side. To ensure social distancing, you must use identity, with sparkling arias and ensembles soaring your reserved seat and may not switch seats without towards happily ever after. the assistance of the house manager. April 9, 13,16, 21 at 7:30 Opera Club and McCorkle Lounge will be closed April 18, 24 at 1:30 until further notice. Livestream: April 19 - May 19 Concessions and drinking fountains will be closed for Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, libretto by Nahum the HD at the Opera House Movies as well as for the Tate Festival Performances. As a result, you will be allowed to bring your own bottled water in the theater. In this Baroque treasure based on the Aenead of Virgil, Social distancing rules will be observed at the opera Dido the Queen of Carthage falls in love with the Trojan house with modifications to lines approaching the warrior Aeneas, yet scheming sorcery and fateful spells restrooms and elevators as well as the entrance to the doom their great passion. Hear the abandoned and theater. heartbroken queen conclude the epic tale with one of opera’s most memorable laments. Sanitizing stations have been installed in the theater April 11, 25 at 1:30 and we have optimized the air conditioning system to April 15,17,20, 22 at 7:30 provide better air flow and filtration. Livestream: April 26 - May 26 Signage will be placed in key locations around the Purchase tickets at the Sarasota Opera Box Office: theater to guide you and help keep you, your fellow patrons, our artists and our staff safe. 61 N. Pineapple, Sarasota FL 34236 366-8450, extension 1

Sarasota Opera Health and Safety Measures

Face masks required for all audience members at the Opera House and at our outdoor concerts. Please wear a mask at all times while inside the Opera House complex, and throughout the performance.

Print your tickets at home or receive a ticket on your mobile device. Self-scanning as you enter the theater will limit your contact with our ushers and staff.

The box office in the lobby will be closed to limit crowding. If needed, the main box office in the Pavilion building, under the green awning will be open. Treasurer Maryanne Hazen presents Sarasota Opera Please do not come to the Opera House if you are Board of Trustees Chair Syble DiGirolamo with a feeling ill. Temperature checks will be required check for $5,000 from the Manatee Opera Guild. before you enter the Sarasota Opera House. Anyone Congratulations to all MOG members who helped who is running a fever (100.3° F or higher) will not be make this donation possible. permitted to enter and your tickets will be refunded. Tributes All seats will be reserved to accommodate distanced seating for performances at the Opera House, In honor of my Mother Dorothy Erikson, including our HD at The Opera House movies series. Seating has been spaced so that there is one row in from Ann Erikson Sabato