Sarasota Opera

You can also email us, floridamatters at wusf.org. Tell us what you love about the music scene here and what reminds you of home when it comes to musicians here.

and artists you just heard the bluegrass sounds of the phil pate trio in about six minutes we're going to check in with the ciggy city super band as a local artist collective musicians who fuse hip-hop jazz funk rock soul and much more but now we are switching gears and going classical there is a thriving classical music scene in tampa bay you're about to hear something very special in a few moments we're going to go live to our sister station WSMR, they're broadcasting from Felding Hall at the Sarasota Opera House, and we're about to join them to chat with WSMR hosts Joe Geertz and Marc Michaud.

Thank you very much.

It's great to hear from you.

But yeah, that classical music tradition on WSMR is so strong.

So tell us a little bit about where you are right now and the performer we're about to hear.

We are in the Sarasota Opera House in Felding Hall.

It's a lovely spot just off of the courtyard.

She's about to return to Finland for an opening concert with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, an 80th anniversary gala with the Tampere Philharmonic in Tampere, Finland.

Her season continues with debuts at the Verbier Festival as Herodias in Salome and as Castanica in Sarasota Opera's Yennefer.

I'm certain to be there.

Corita's recent seasons highlights including Herodias at the Paris Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and Houston Grand Opera, Platonestra at Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Royal Opera, La Sia Principesa at Sur Angelica in Paris, the Salzburg Festival, and the Belbois Opera, and too many others to name here.

Yeah.

So, um, what I love about the sort of homecoming of, uh, Rutabaga Country at Sarasota Opera is that it's made me think a lot about the trajectory that I've been able to take since then with Opera for Young People.

And a big part of that, for the last several years, has been, um, participating in the Young People's Opera Committee with the National Opera Association.

My particular role in this committee is that I'm putting together a database of operas for young people and just really trying to be a hub of information.

To learn more how Rutabaga Country is making that journey from page to stage, I sat down with director Martha Collins and conductor Jess A. Martin.

Well, thank you both for joining me today, Martha and Jesse.

I'd love for you both, um, to introduce yourselves and your role at Sarasota Opera, starting with you, Martha.

Martha.So I'm the director of education here.

No replacement has been announced yet.

In trade news, late last month, PJ Albert began his role as managing director of Sarasota Opera, a newly defined position overseeing finance and theater operations.

Meanwhile, Opera de Limoges in France has promoted Nicolas Fayet to the position of general director-designate.

He'll be taking over from Alain Mercier next fall.