--- title: "Sarasota Opera House: History, 2026–27 Season & Downtown Sarasota" description: Explore the Sarasota Opera House’s 100-year history, Sarasota Opera’s 2026–27 season, Verdi legacy, DaCapo Society and downtown Sarasota culture. image: https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/hubfs/sarasota-opera-house-downtown-sarasota-centennial-2026.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/blog/sarasota-opera-house-history-season-downtown-sarasota#main-content) ![John Acosta Real Estate Advisor | Sarasota, Manatee & Tampa Bay](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/john-acosta-real-estate-advisor-logo.png?width=2172&height=724&name=john-acosta-real-estate-advisor-logo.png)Homepage - [Home](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com) - [Property Services](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/property-services) - [Insights](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/blog) [Contact Me](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/property-services#contact) - [Home](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com) - [Property Services](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/property-services) - [Insights](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/blog) [Contact Me](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/property-services#contact) ![Editorial illustration of the historic Sarasota Opera House in downtown Sarasota, Florida](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sarasota-opera-house-downtown-sarasota-centennial-2026.jpg?width=1448&height=724&name=sarasota-opera-house-downtown-sarasota-centennial-2026.jpg) Sarasota Real Estate Sarasota Opera Downtown Sarasota # Sarasota Opera House: A Century of Music, History & Sarasota Culture ![John Acosta](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/John-Acosta-HubSpot-Circle-Preview.png?width=48&height=48&name=John-Acosta-HubSpot-Circle-Preview.png) John Acosta October 6, 2026 There are buildings that become landmarks because of their architecture, and others that become landmarks because generations of people attach memories to them. The Sarasota Opera House is both. Standing at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue in the heart of downtown Sarasota, the theater has watched the city around it change for a century. It opened during Florida’s 1920s land boom, survived changing tastes in entertainment and a period when its future was very much in doubt, and ultimately found new life as the home of Sarasota Opera. Today, it remains part of the rhythm of downtown Sarasota. An evening can move naturally from dinner along Main Street or Palm Avenue to a performance, then back onto downtown streets only a short distance from Sarasota Bay. It is one of the places that helps explain why Sarasota is more than a Gulf Coast beach destination. And 2026 is an especially meaningful year to tell its story. The Sarasota Opera House is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Sarasota Opera is entering its 68th season. And after an extraordinary 44-year tenure by Maestro Victor DeRenzi, the company is beginning a new artistic chapter under General & Artistic Director Richard Russell. I also have a personal connection to this story. My relationship with Sarasota Opera began in the audience. During the past two seasons, I have also had the privilege of participating in productions as a supernumerary—a nonsinging performer who helps bring the world of an opera to life onstage. That experience has given me a small glimpse of the institution from the other side of the curtain. But Sarasota Opera’s story began long before any of us currently involved with it arrived. ## Before Sarasota Opera: A Theater Built for a Growing Sarasota The story begins with Arthur Britton “A.B.” Edwards. Born in Sarasota in 1874, Edwards became the city’s first mayor and established Sarasota’s first real-estate office in 1903. That makes the history of today’s Opera House especially interesting from a real-estate perspective. During Florida’s great land boom of the 1920s, Sarasota was rapidly evolving from a small Gulf Coast community into a destination attracting investment, residents and visitors. Edwards believed a growing city needed entertainment and cultural spaces worthy of its ambitions. He commissioned Jacksonville architect Roy A. Benjamin to design a multipurpose entertainment complex capable of hosting everything from theatrical performances to opera. The A.B. Edwards Theater opened on April 10, 1926. Its Mediterranean Revival architecture reflected the style reshaping much of Florida at the time, but the original complex was more than a theater. The three-story front portion contained shops on the ground floor, offices above them and furnished apartments on the third floor, arranged around a central atrium. Behind that mixed-use frontage were the auditorium, stage and fly tower. A century later, the concept sounds surprisingly contemporary: commerce, residences and entertainment occupying the same downtown building. It is also a reminder that Sarasota’s cultural history and its development history have been connected from the beginning. ## From Live Entertainment to Elvis and Hollywood The Edwards Theater was never intended solely for opera. During its early decades, its stage hosted a remarkable range of performers and entertainment. Sarasota Opera’s historical records include appearances by Will Rogers, the Ziegfeld Follies, Sally Rand and a young Elvis Presley. The building also played a role in Sarasota’s film history. In 1952, it hosted the road premiere of Cecil B. DeMille’s *The Greatest Show on Earth*, much of which had been filmed in Sarasota with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Eventually renamed the Florida Theatre, the building increasingly operated as a movie house. Then came a period familiar to many historic American downtowns. Entertainment patterns changed. Suburban development pulled activity away from traditional downtown districts. Older theaters became expensive to maintain. By 1973, the Florida Theatre had closed. And Sarasota came remarkably close to losing it. ## The Opera House Sarasota Almost Lost The preservation story deserves to be remembered. According to Sarasota Opera’s centennial history, the former theater was approximately one day away from demolition. A wrecking ball was already in the neighboring parking lot. Duaine and Patricia Glenn stepped in and purchased the building in 1973. That intervention kept the theater standing long enough for another organization to imagine a future for it. At the same time, an opera company elsewhere in Sarasota was outgrowing its home. The touring Turnau Opera Players had first presented a season in the historic 320-seat Asolo Theater at the Ringling Museum in 1960. The following year, the Asolo Opera Guild was created to support those performances. By 1974, the organization was mounting its own productions. The intimate Asolo was an important home, but it lacked the space and infrastructure required for the kind of full-scale opera the organization hoped eventually to produce. In 1979, the Asolo Opera Guild purchased the former Edwards Theater. A building created during Sarasota’s first great period of growth was about to begin another life. ## Becoming the Sarasota Opera House Transforming an aging theater into a functioning opera house took years. Renovations began in the early 1980s, including work on the stage, auditorium and orchestra pit. On January 21, 1984, the renovated theater opened with Tchaikovsky’s *Eugene Onegin*, conducted by Victor DeRenzi. The organization became Sarasota Opera, and the building eventually became known as the Sarasota Opera House. Work continued over the following decades. Then, in 2007, Sarasota Opera undertook an approximately $20 million renovation of the historic building. The project enlarged the orchestra pit, improved production facilities and audience amenities, restored architectural elements and modernized a theater that still needed to function as a working performance venue rather than simply a preserved historic structure. The William E. Schmidt Opera Theatre today seats 1,119. That distinction matters. The Opera House is not a museum displaying what Sarasota once was. It is a century-old building that is still doing its job. ## Maestro Victor DeRenzi and 44 Years of Artistic Leadership It is difficult to tell the modern history of Sarasota Opera without spending meaningful time on Maestro Victor DeRenzi. DeRenzi joined Sarasota Opera in 1982 and ultimately served for 44 years, an extraordinary period of continuity in the performing arts. Sarasota Opera reports that during his tenure he oversaw more than 1,500 performances of 218 productions in nine languages and personally conducted close to 900 performances. But statistics alone do not explain his influence. Under Maestro DeRenzi, Sarasota Opera developed a reputation for treating the repertoire seriously while also presenting works that audiences might rarely encounter elsewhere. He established initiatives including the Masterworks Revival Series and American Classics Series and helped develop programs for emerging artists and young performers. His most ambitious undertaking, however, became inseparable from Sarasota Opera’s identity. It began with Giuseppe Verdi. ## The Verdi Cycle: 28 Seasons and a Distinction No Other Opera Company Claims In 1989, Sarasota Opera embarked on what became known as the Verdi Cycle. The idea was audacious: Perform the complete works of Giuseppe Verdi. Not simply *La traviata*, *Rigoletto*, *Aida* and the other titles familiar to opera audiences. The project encompassed Verdi’s operas—including alternate versions—as well as his other musical compositions. It took 28 seasons. The cycle concluded during the 2016 Winter Opera Festival with *Aida*, *La battaglia di Legnano* and a final celebration devoted to Verdi’s music and legacy. Upon its completion, Sarasota Opera became, according to the company, the only opera company in the world to have performed all of Verdi’s music. That is an extraordinary distinction for any opera company. It is particularly striking in a Gulf Coast city Sarasota’s size. The achievement required more than artistic ambition. It required institutional continuity, singers, musicians, staff, donors and an audience willing to follow a project across nearly three decades. The Verdi Cycle therefore says something not only about Sarasota Opera but about Sarasota itself. This is a community capable of sustaining serious cultural institutions over generations. ## Richard Russell and Sarasota Opera’s New Era When someone has shaped an institution for 44 years, succession is more consequential than changing a name on an office door. But Richard Russell is not arriving at Sarasota Opera as an outsider. His history with the company stretches back decades. Russell first performed with Sarasota Opera beginning in 1989, appearing over four seasons as an apprentice artist, studio artist and principal singer. After leaving professional performing, his career took an unusual turn into business. He worked with Citigroup’s emerging-markets operations before returning to Sarasota Opera in 2005—not as a singer, but as Director of Marketing. He later served as General Director of Opera New Jersey before returning to Sarasota in 2012 as Executive Director. He became General Director in 2021. And in 2026, following Maestro DeRenzi’s departure, Russell assumed artistic leadership as Sarasota Opera’s General & Artistic Director. That progression is unusual: **performer → business executive → marketing leader → opera executive → artistic leader.** It also means the 2026 transition contains considerably more continuity than the phrase “new artistic director” might suggest. Russell knows the company as a performer and administrator. He worked alongside the institution DeRenzi built. At the same time, his first season overseeing both sides of the organization provides an opportunity to begin shaping the next era. PJ Albert has also joined the current leadership structure as Managing Director, while a broader artistic, production, education, marketing, development and patron-services team carries out the work that audiences rarely see. Opera may place individual singers in the spotlight. An opera company is anything but an individual undertaking. ## The 2026–27 Sarasota Opera Season Sarasota Opera’s 68th season offers an interesting mixture of continuity and change. ### *Hansel and Gretel* — October 30–November 14, 2026 Engelbert Humperdinck’s *Hansel and Gretel* opens the fall season. Its fairy-tale origins make the story familiar and approachable, while Humperdinck’s score gives it musical sophistication well beyond what someone might expect from the source material. ### *Rootabaga Country* — November 7–8, 2026 Sarasota Youth Opera presents Rachel J. Peters’ *Rootabaga Country*, inspired by Carl Sandburg’s *Rootabaga Stories*. The work has a Sarasota history of its own: Sarasota Youth Opera presented its world premiere in 2017. ### *La traviata* — February 6–March 20, 2027 Verdi remains part of Sarasota Opera’s artistic DNA. A new production of *La traviata* therefore creates a natural connection between the company’s history and its new chapter. ### *H.M.S. Pinafore* — February 13–March 19, 2027 Gilbert and Sullivan enter Sarasota Opera’s repertoire for the first time with *H.M.S. Pinafore*. The comic operetta brings satire, social hierarchy, romance and some of Gilbert and Sullivan’s best-known musical traditions to the Opera House. ### *Ariadne auf Naxos* — February 27–March 13, 2027 Richard Strauss’ *Ariadne auf Naxos* combines mythology with a wonderfully theatrical premise: an opera company and comedy troupe unexpectedly forced to perform together. For an article about what happens both onstage and backstage, it is a particularly appropriate work for this season. ### *Jenůfa* — March 6–21, 2027 Leoš Janáček’s *Jenůfa* brings a very different musical and dramatic world to Sarasota. World-renowned Finnish soprano Karita Mattila is scheduled to make her Sarasota Opera debut as the Kostelnička, one of the work’s central roles. Taken together, the season suggests evolution rather than rupture: Verdi remains, new repertoire enters, familiar traditions continue and a new artistic era begins. ## What Is a Supernumerary? Not everyone appearing on an opera stage is a professional singer. Supernumeraries—usually called “supers”—are nonsinging performers who help populate the world of an opera. Depending on the production, they might appear as soldiers, servants, guards, townspeople, aristocrats, attendants or any number of characters needed to make a scene feel complete. They may not sing, but timing still matters. A super has entrances, exits, blocking, costumes and cues. And once rehearsals begin, you quickly discover how much precision exists behind scenes that audiences experience as spontaneous. I know that because becoming a super changed the way I see opera. ## The First Time I Went Behind the Doors Long before I understood how many people and moving parts are required to bring an opera to the stage, I experienced some of that world firsthand. Marco Nisticò was the person I met when I first arrived at Sarasota Opera and, ultimately, the person who opened the doors and walked me through the Opera House. I mean that both literally and, looking back, figuratively. My first impression of Marco was that he was serious, observant and measured. He seemed to be reading me a little before I quite knew what to make of him—or what waited beyond those doors. There was something about that first encounter that reminded me, in the best possible way, of the original *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory*: a kind but initially serious gatekeeper standing at the threshold of a world I had never seen from the inside. Marco opened the large double doors beyond the Opera House’s original ticket-box area and led me through. We made our way through hallways and up through the building until we eventually reached his office. And that is where something changed. Once we sat down and began talking, the initial formality gave way. Marco came to life as he spoke, and I began to feel that I was no longer simply someone standing outside looking in. He was allowing me into a world that he—and so many people at Sarasota Opera—knew from the inside. I have written more about that first encounter and what followed in my *Libretto* essay, **“From Opera-Curious to Opera-Lover.”** But what I remember most vividly is what happened after we left his office and continued through the building. My heart was racing. Somewhere in the Opera House, I could hear singing. I didn’t necessarily know where it was coming from, which somehow made the experience even more memorable. Around another corner, staff hurried past with costumes hanging from rolling racks, moving with the kind of purpose that suggested those costumes needed to be somewhere else in the building yesterday. And surrounding all of it was the Opera House itself. There was the distinctive character—even the scent—of a beautiful old building that had aged well. It carried its history without feeling preserved behind glass. People were working. Voices were traveling through corridors. Doors were opening and closing. Costumes were moving from one part of the building to another. **The building was old, but everything inside it felt intensely alive.** I remember thinking that I had somehow stepped into a scene from *La La Land*. Not because anything had been staged for me—it hadn’t—but because so many things seemed to be happening at once, each with its own destination, while music existed somewhere in the background. And everyone I encountered was extraordinarily welcoming. Then came the costume department. Suddenly I was being measured and fitted, surrounded by fabrics, racks of costumes and the people responsible for transforming performers into characters. There was something wonderfully cinematic about it—the strange pleasure of standing perfectly still while someone adjusted a garment, being moved from one detail to another, and gradually seeing an ordinary person begin to belong visually inside another world. Until then, I had experienced Sarasota Opera primarily from the audience. Marco showed me something an audience normally doesn’t get to see: **the life of the Opera House behind the performance.** The voices. The costumes. The movement. The history. The urgency. And, most importantly, the people. For an audience, the world of an opera may begin when the curtain rises. **For me, another world began when Marco opened those doors.** ## From the Stage to Artistic Operations: Marco Nisticò There is another reason Marco belongs in the story of Sarasota Opera beyond my own introduction to the company: his career reflects several sides of the institution itself. Nisticò first joined Sarasota Opera in 2008 as a principal artist, singing Francesco Foscari in Verdi’s *I due Foscari*. Over the years that followed, he returned in a wide range of principal roles, including Figaro in *The Barber of Seville*, Rodrigue in *Don Carlos*, Giorgio Germont in *La traviata*, the title role in *Rigoletto*, Tonio in *Pagliacci*, Amonasro in *Aida* and Don Pasquale. His relationship with opera, however, was never confined to performing. After more than two decades as an operatic baritone, his work increasingly expanded into stage direction and arts administration. In 2020, he made his Sarasota Opera directing debut with Donizetti’s *The Elixir of Love*. Later that year, after serving as General Director of Opera on the James in Lynchburg, Virginia, he returned to Sarasota Opera in an artistic leadership role. Today, Sarasota Opera lists Nisticò as its **Director of Artistic Operations**. Yet his connection to the stage continues. He directed Sarasota Opera’s *Il trovatore* in 2026 and is the stage director for *La traviata* during the 2026–27 season.  That progression—from singer, to director, to artistic leadership—is particularly fitting at an institution where performance, training and the enormous amount of work happening beyond the audience’s view are so closely connected. When Marco walked me through the Opera House that first day, I knew almost none of that history. I simply knew that someone who understood the building and the institution from the inside was taking the time to show me a world I had previously known only from the audience. **Years later, that first walk through the Opera House still feels like the moment the doors truly opened.**   ## From Opera-Curious to Opera-Lover: My Sarasota Opera Connection My own relationship with Sarasota Opera began in the audience. I attended *La bohème* at the Sarasota Opera House in 2015. I was curious about opera, but I certainly would not have described myself as an expert. Years later, I saw that Sarasota Opera was seeking supernumeraries for a production. I had no professional singing or acting background. Eventually I decided to audition anyway. That decision took me somewhere I never expected—from sitting in the audience to rehearsing on the Opera House stage. During the past two seasons, participating as a supernumerary has allowed me to see a small part of what audiences normally don't encounter: rehearsals, costume fittings, staging, repeated cues and the extraordinary coordination required among singers, musicians, directors, stage managers, technicians, costumers and everyone else involved in creating a production. One of those early experiences was a costume fitting with Sarasota Opera’s longtime Resident Costume Designer, Howard Tsvi Kaplan. Details like that changed my understanding of what “putting on an opera” actually means. A costume department isn't simply choosing attractive clothing. A performer has to move in it. The clothing has to belong to the period and visual world of the production. Changes may need to happen quickly. Dozens of performers have to look as though they inhabit the same world. And that is only one department. My involvement eventually extended beyond performing through Sarasota Opera’s DaCapo Society. In 2025, Sarasota Opera’s *Libretto* invited me to share that journey in a feature titled **“From Opera-Curious to Opera-Lover: DaCapo Member John Acosta’s Journey to Opera, in his own words.”** Marketing Director Lael A. Mohib helped bring that story to *Libretto*, and I remain genuinely grateful for the care Sarasota Opera showed in documenting an experience that has become personally meaningful to me. I mention that here with some restraint. My role in these productions is small. But experiencing Sarasota Opera from the audience, backstage and as a supporter has given me something internet research alone cannot provide: an appreciation for the enormous collective effort behind what eventually looks effortless from a theater seat. ## DaCapo Society: Creating the Next Generation of Sarasota Opera Patrons Opera can sometimes carry an unfortunate perception that you need to understand it before you are allowed to enjoy it. You don't. Sarasota Opera’s DaCapo Society is one way the company is lowering that invisible barrier. Designed for patrons ages 21 to 45, DaCapo combines discounted access to selected performances with receptions and invitations to events, tours, talks and mixers. For the 2026–27 season, designated DaCapo nights include performances of *Hansel and Gretel*, *La traviata*, *H.M.S. Pinafore*, *Ariadne auf Naxos* and *Jenůfa*. The season begins socially as well: the 2026 DaCapo launch party is scheduled for October 8 at Sarasota Opera’s Costume Warehouse. That may sound like a small program beside a century of Opera House history. I don't think it is. Cultural institutions survive when new generations discover a way into them. Someone may arrive because their parents loved opera. Someone else may come through Youth Opera. Another person may attend because a friend invited them to a DaCapo reception. Someone may volunteer. Someone may audition to be a super. And someone else may simply buy a ticket without knowing whether opera is going to be “for them.” That was much closer to my experience. The title Sarasota Opera gave my *Libretto* story—*From Opera-Curious to Opera-Lover*—captures something larger than my own journey. Curiosity is enough reason to walk through the door. ## The People Audiences Don't Always See One thing my backstage experience has reinforced is how misleading the word “opera” can be if it makes us think only about singers. A company like Sarasota Opera depends on people working across artistic operations, production, costumes, education, marketing, development, patron services, facilities and administration. Marco Nisticò, Sarasota Opera’s Director of Artistic Operations, brings his own history as a performer with the company. Martha Collins leads education, an area that has become one of Sarasota Opera’s most consequential community commitments. Howard Tsvi Kaplan’s work as Resident Costume Designer helps establish the visual worlds audiences see onstage. Lael Mohib leads marketing and communications that help connect those productions and programs with audiences beyond the building. And dozens of additional staff members, artists, technicians, volunteers and supporters contribute to work most patrons will never directly witness. That is not unique to Sarasota Opera. But seeing it up close changes your appreciation for what happens when the lights finally dim. ### **Costumes, Wigs and the Transformation Backstage** Opera is built visually as well as musically. Behind every character onstage is another layer of artists and craftspeople working in costume, wigs, makeup and production. Sarasota Opera’s current production leadership includes Director of Production Scott Keclik, Resident Costume Designer Howard Tsvi Kaplan and Costume Administrator John Tully. The work extends from fittings and alterations to wig construction, styling, makeup application and the backstage quick changes audiences may never realize are happening. The scale of Sarasota Opera’s costume operation is particularly remarkable. Its winter costume department can include a staff of approximately 15, while the Sarasota Opera Costume Studio maintains an extensive collection used both for the company’s own productions and rentals to other performing-arts organizations. The collection expanded dramatically when Sarasota Opera acquired the historic Malabar Ltd. opera costume collection in 2019. For performers—including supernumeraries—the costume fitting can be one of the first moments when the world of an opera stops feeling theoretical and begins to feel real. ## Sarasota Youth Opera: Building the Next Generation From the Stage Sarasota Opera's commitment to younger generations extends far beyond DaCapo. Sarasota Youth Opera provides year-round training in singing, musicianship and acting while giving young performers opportunities to participate in concerts, youth productions and professional Sarasota Opera mainstage productions. The program describes itself as one of only a few in the United States presenting an annual fully staged youth opera with professional orchestra, sets and costumes. That distinction is significant. These are not simply children's recitals presented beside the professional season. Young performers participate in the production process and can appear in children's choruses, solo roles and even as supernumeraries in mainstage productions. Sarasota Opera has also commissioned new works specifically for young performers. The people behind that training are an important part of the story. Martha Collins serves as Sarasota Opera’s Director of Education and Stage Director, Jessé Martins as Youth Opera Music Director, and Cameron Maxwell as Youth Opera Coordinator. Together, their work helps guide the year-round program and shape an environment that asks young performers to meet the standards of fully staged opera rather than simply participate in a children’s recital. Martins is a conductor, pianist and voice coach who has been part of Sarasota Opera’s music staff since 2011. His work extends well beyond Youth Opera: he coaches singers at different stages of their development, works with Sarasota Opera’s Vocal Academy and conducts for the company. During the 2026–27 season, he is also among the conductors returning to lead a mainstage production. Collins and Martins have collaborated artistically as well as educationally. Their work together has included original material created around Youth Opera productions, including the prologue associated with *Brundibár*—another example of the seriousness with which Sarasota Opera approaches work created for young performers.  Cameron Maxwell, Sarasota Opera's Youth Opera Coordinator, plays an important role in making that year-round work possible. Maxwell helps coordinate the program that families and young performers experience throughout the year—from auditions and rehearsals to the many practical details involved in bringing young singers through a full production. Her work also extends into Sarasota Opera’s Vocal Academy, further connecting her role with the company’s efforts to develop young singers as they advance in their training. Sarasota Opera’s current Youth Opera materials direct families to Maxwell for program coordination and questions, placing her at an important point of connection between the institution, its young artists and their families. During the 2026 fall season, Youth Opera returns to *Rootabaga Country*, a work Sarasota first premiered in 2017. Programs like this answer an important question facing every century-old cultural institution: Who comes next? At Sarasota Opera, part of the answer is already rehearsing. ## Martha Collins: Director, Educator and a Major Force Behind Sarasota Opera Some people within an arts organization resist being described by a single job title. Martha Collins is one of them. Sarasota Opera’s Director of Education is also an accomplished stage director whose relationship with the company reaches back more than two decades. Collins has served as a stage director at Sarasota Opera since 2004, with credits spanning the mainstage, the Apprentice Artist Program and Sarasota Youth Opera. Her Sarasota directing work has included productions such as *Carmen*, *Ernani*, *Attila*, *Roméo et Juliette* and *Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci*, as well as numerous works presented during the company’s landmark Verdi Cycle. Collins also brings something important to her work as a director and educator: she knows the stage from the performer’s side. Before becoming known for her work as a stage director, she performed extensively in her native Canada as both an operatic and concert singer. Her performances were heard in numerous recitals and orchestral concerts on CBC’s Arts National Radio, and her television appearances included singing Micaëla in *Carmen* with Vancouver Opera. She also appeared in the opening gala of the 1986 World Expo in Vancouver, a performance broadcast internationally. That performing background adds another dimension to the work she does today. Collins understands not only how a production should look from the audience, but what singers experience while building a character, responding to musical direction and learning to inhabit a stage. Her influence is equally important away from the mainstage. As Director of Education, Collins helps connect Sarasota Opera with young singers, students, families and schools. That work encompasses Sarasota Youth Opera, educational outreach and school programs, while her teaching and coaching also extend into programs including Sarasota Opera’s Apprentice Artists and Vocal Academy. The combination matters. Collins is not simply introducing young people to opera from outside the art form; she brings the perspective of a working stage director into the educational side of the company. That creates a bridge between professional opera and the people who may become its next performers, audiences and supporters. I experienced a small part of that personally as a supernumerary. Martha’s staging guidance was part of learning how to exist convincingly inside the world being created onstage—another reminder that even a nonsinging performer becomes part of a much larger artistic picture. ## More Than a Stage: Sarasota Opera as a Training Ground for the Next Generation Sarasota Opera’s significance is not limited to the artists audiences already know. For decades, the company has also served as a training ground for singers working their way into professional opera—creating a bridge between formal training and the demands of a professional stage. The Apprentice Artists Program, founded in 1982, is designed specifically for that transition from student to professional life. Apprentice Artists do not simply observe from the sidelines. They train with Sarasota Opera’s artistic staff, receive musical and language coaching, participate in master classes and perform as part of the company’s mainstage productions. The Studio Artists Program represents a more advanced step. Studio Artists perform supporting roles, cover principal roles and can be called upon to step into a performance when a principal artist is unavailable. Some have later returned to Sarasota Opera as principal artists, while others have gone on to perform with major opera companies in the United States and internationally. That makes Sarasota Opera something more than a producing company. It is part of opera’s professional pipeline—a place where internationally established artists, experienced professionals and emerging singers can occupy the same artistic ecosystem. The 2026–27 season makes that role especially visible. Internationally acclaimed soprano Karita Mattila is serving as Sarasota Opera’s inaugural Artist in Residence, working with Apprentice and Studio Artists through mentorship, artistic guidance and individualized coaching. The season also introduces an Emerging Artists Showcase, giving those developing singers an opportunity to perform with full orchestra. And the pathway begins even earlier. Sarasota Youth Opera provides year-round training for young singers, while the Sarasota Opera Vocal Academy offers intensive instruction for pre-college vocalists. Taken together, those programs create something unusual: opportunities that can begin with a young person discovering opera and extend toward the professional stage. In that sense, Sarasota Opera does more than preserve an art form. **It helps prepare the people who will carry it forward.** ## Why the Sarasota Opera House Belongs Downtown It is difficult to separate the Opera House from its location. This is not a performing-arts complex isolated behind acres of parking. The Opera House sits at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue within Sarasota's downtown street grid, close to Main Street, Palm Avenue, restaurants, galleries, hotels, shops and Sarasota Bay. That changes the experience. An evening can begin with dinner a few blocks away, continue inside a century-old theater and end with people spilling back onto downtown streets after the final curtain. The surrounding cultural ecosystem matters too. Galleries along Palm Avenue, nearby theaters and performance spaces, restaurants and hotels all contribute to a downtown where culture is embedded into the urban environment rather than separated from it. DaCapo has even collaborated with the broader arts community through events connected with Palm Avenue galleries. These relationships are part of what makes downtown Sarasota feel like a place rather than simply a collection of buildings. ### Opera From the Balcony One of Sarasota Opera’s most charming connections to downtown happens outside the auditorium altogether. During the winter season, singers have taken to the exterior balcony of the Sarasota Opera House for Saturday morning performances, sending live opera out over Pineapple Avenue for pedestrians, downtown visitors and people making their way through the nearby Sarasota Farmers Market. The tradition has featured Sarasota Opera’s developing artists, including members of its Studio and Apprentice Artist programs. It is a small but memorable example of what makes the Opera House unusual: the music does not always stay behind the theater doors. Sometimes, downtown Sarasota becomes part of the audience. ## What Sarasota Opera Has to Do With Real Estate People often begin a home search with numbers. Price. Square footage. Bedrooms. Condominium fees. Taxes. Insurance. Distance to the beach. Those things matter enormously. But they don't completely explain why someone chooses one community over another. A home exists within a larger environment. For someone considering downtown Sarasota, that environment includes the ability to walk to restaurants, galleries, performances, parks and the bayfront. For someone else, none of that may outweigh having acreage, a private dock, immediate beach access, a golf community or a quiet suburban street. Neither preference is more correct. They are simply different versions of the life someone wants outside the front door. That is why I believe good real-estate guidance requires understanding communities as more than collections of comparable sales. Sarasota Opera matters in that context because it isn't an amenity added recently to make a development more attractive. The institution has history here. The building has history here. In many respects, downtown Sarasota grew around it. ## A Building That Has Watched Sarasota Change Consider the Sarasota that existed when A.B. Edwards opened his theater in 1926. The city was vastly smaller. Much of the Sarasota people recognize today had not yet been built. The theater survived the end of Florida's land boom, the Great Depression, war, changing entertainment technology, suburbanization, downtown decline and Sarasota's later emergence as one of Florida's better-known arts communities. It changed names. It changed uses. It came extraordinarily close to disappearing. Then people decided it was worth saving. There is something valuable in that history, particularly in a part of Florida where rapid growth can sometimes make communities feel newer than they really are. Sarasota has layers. The Opera House is one of them. ## Visiting the Sarasota Opera House The Sarasota Opera House is located at: **61 N. Pineapple Avenue Sarasota, Florida 34236** Performance schedules, casting, ticket availability and special events can change, so anyone planning a visit should confirm current information directly with Sarasota Opera. And if you have never attended an opera before, you do not need to arrive already knowing the music, language or conventions. Read the synopsis if you want to. Or don't. Sometimes the best introduction is simply to sit down, let the orchestra begin and discover what happens. ## A Century Later, the Curtain Still Rises When A.B. Edwards opened his theater in 1926, he could not have known what Sarasota would become. He could not have anticipated Sarasota Opera. He could not have imagined a 28-season Verdi Cycle, a major historic restoration, Youth Opera, DaCapo or a 2026 season beginning under a new generation of artistic leadership. But his underlying idea—that a growing city needed places where people could gather and experience culture—proved remarkably durable. One hundred years later, the building remains alive. That may be the most important part of its story. Historic preservation isn't simply keeping an old façade standing. At its best, it allows a place to continue accumulating memories. Audiences still arrive on Pineapple Avenue. Musicians still take their places. Singers still prepare. Costumes are still fitted. Supers still wait for their cues backstage. The lights still dim. And in the middle of a Sarasota that continues to grow and reinvent itself, the curtain still rises. --- 𝓙𝓸𝓱𝓷 𝓐𝓬𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓪 Real Estate Advisor John Acosta Real Estate Sarasota • Manatee • Tampa Bay [www.johnacostarealestate.com](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/) ### Independent Article Disclaimer This is an independently written editorial article by John Acosta Real Estate. John Acosta has participated in Sarasota Opera productions as a supernumerary and is a member of the DaCapo Society, but John Acosta Real Estate is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Sarasota Opera. Sarasota Opera names, productions and related trademarks belong to their respective owners. Last updated October 6, 2026. Season schedules, leadership information and program details reflect information available as of that date. ## Sources & Further Reading Sarasota Opera — About Sarasota Opera [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/about-sarasota-opera](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/about-sarasota-opera) Sarasota Opera — Sarasota Opera House History [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/about-sarasota-opera-house](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/about-sarasota-opera-house) Sarasota Opera — Sarasota Opera House Centennial [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/Centennial](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/Centennial) Sarasota Opera — 2026–27 Season [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/2026-27-season-announcement](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/2026-27-season-announcement) Sarasota Opera — The Verdi Cycle [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/index.php/verdi-cycle](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/index.php/verdi-cycle) Sarasota Opera — Leadership [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/leadership](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/leadership) Sarasota Opera — DaCapo Society [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/da-capo-society](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/da-capo-society) Sarasota Opera — Youth Opera Program [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/youth-opera-program](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/youth-opera-program) Sarasota Opera — Staff [https://www.sarasotaopera.org/staff](https://www.sarasotaopera.org/staff) Sarasota Opera, *Libretto*, Fall 2025, Issue 163 — “From Opera-Curious to Opera-Lover: DaCapo Member John Acosta's Journey to Opera, in his own words,” pp. 8, 10 [https://issuu.com/sarasotaopera/docs/libretto\_fall\_2025](https://issuu.com/sarasotaopera/docs/libretto_fall_2025) ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.johnacostarealestate.com%2Fblog%2Fsarasota-opera-house-history-season-downtown-sarasota](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.johnacostarealestate.com%2Fblog%2Fsarasota-opera-house-history-season-downtown-sarasota) ## Keep reading ### [![Illustration of a modern data-center campus in Manatee County, Florida, for the proposed 2026 data-center moratorium.](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/manatee-county-data-center-moratorium-2026-property-owners.png?width=1448&height=724&name=manatee-county-data-center-moratorium-2026-property-owners.png) Manatee County Real Estate John Acosta Florida Gulf Coast Real Estate Manatee County Data Center Moratorium 2026 | Property Guide](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/blog/manatee-county-data-center-moratorium-2026) ### [![Lakewood Ranch and Waterside lakefront community in Sarasota, Florida, featuring Waterside Place, palm trees and waterfront scenery.](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Lakewood%20Ranch%20Waterside%20Sunset%20Guide.png?width=1774&height=887&name=Lakewood%20Ranch%20Waterside%20Sunset%20Guide.png) John Acosta Sarasota Real Estate New Construction Lakewood Ranch & Waterside FL Real Estate Guide | John Acosta](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/blog/lakewood-ranch-waterside-sarasota-guide) - [Home](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com) - [Property Services](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/property-services) - [Insights](https://www.johnacostarealestate.com/blog) --- John Acosta, Real Estate Advisor | Keller Williams On The Water Privacy Policy · Legal · © 2026. 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