Marco Nisticò Named Artistic Administrator For Sarasota Opera

October 16, 2020 – Sarasota

Executive Director Richard Russell and Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi announced that Marco Nisticò will become the new Artistic Administrator of Sarasota Opera beginning December 1, 2020. Mr. Nisticò will fill the position held by the recently deceased Greg Trupiano, who had worked for Sarasota Opera since 1987.

Since 2019 Mr. Nisticò has been the General Director of Opera on the James in Lynchburg, Virginia. Mr. Nisticò is well-versed with the workings of the Sarasota Opera, having first joined the company in 2008 as a principal artist, singing the role of Francesco Foscari in Verdi’s I due Foscari. With Sarasota Opera he has also performed principal roles in The Barber of Seville, (2008, 2014), Don Carlos(2009, 2015), La Traviata (2009, 2017), Giovanna d’Arco (2010), Madame Butterfly (2011), Rigoletto (2012, 2019), Pagliacci (2014), Aida and Don Pasquale (2016), The Love of Three Kings (2017), Susanna’s Secret, and Rita (2019), and most recently was stage director of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, performed during the 2020 Winter Opera Festival.

Born in Naples, Italy, Mr. Nisticò’s singing career as a baritone has taken him to theaters around the world, with performances for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, the Caramoor Festival, and Chautauqua Opera Festival in New York, the Teatro dell’ Opera, Teatro Regio di Parma, and Teatro di San Carlo in Italy, Landestheater Bregenz in Austria, Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland, Opera de Monte-Carlo and Théâtre du Châtelet in France, West Australian Opera, and many others. He added stage direction to his career path in 2018, directing Tosca for Opera Southwest, and has provided stage direction for the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and the Savannah Voice Festival. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Nisticò has served as a teacher, lecturer, coach, and mentor to many singers. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has been offering free classes online to colleagues left jobless at home. He was educated in theater at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. He studied voice with his father, Maestro Benito Nisticò of the Avellino Conservatory in Italy, and at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.

On his return to Sarasota Opera, Mr. Nisticò states, “I’m so honored to return to Sarasota Opera in this new function as Artistic Administrator. I believe deeply in the company and in the artistic staff led by Maestro DeRenzi, and its core artistic values. Sarasota Opera brings great music and great performances to the wonderful Sarasota community and beyond. Of course, no one can replace the much-loved late Greg Trupiano, the company’s previous Artistic Administrator of 30 years, whom I was privileged to work with closely for many seasons. His are impossibly big shoes to fill. But I will do my best for the company and its audience.”

Sarasota Opera’s Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi says, “I am looking forward to Marco Nisticò becoming our new Artistic Administrator. In addition to his artistic talents, he brings the administrative skills that led him to his previous position as General Director of Opera on the James. The knowledge he has gained in those pursuits, as well as his love of the Sarasota Opera and the Sarasota community, make him an ideal Artistic Administrator for our Company.”

ABOUT SARASOTA OPERA

This is Sarasota Opera’s 62nd Season of bringing world-class opera to Florida’s Gulf Coast. The company was launched in 1960, when a touring chamber opera company came to the historic 320-seat Asolo Theater on the grounds of Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art and the Asolo Opera Guild was formed to present the season. By 1974 the Asolo Opera was mounting its own productions at the theater. Recognizing the need for a theater more conducive to full-scale opera, the company purchased the former A.B. Edwards Theater which in 1984 (as the Sarasota Opera House) became home to the newly renamed Sarasota Opera. The building underwent a $20 million renovation and rehabilitation in 2007 enhancing audience amenities, while updating the technical facilities including increasing the size of the orchestra pit. The theater, which reopened in March 2008, has been called “one of America’s finest venues for opera” by Musical America.

Since 1983, the company has been under the artistic leadership of Victor DeRenzi and administrative leadership of Executive Director Richard Russell since 2012. Sarasota Opera has garnered international attention with its Masterwork Revivals Series, which presents neglected works of artistic merit, as well as the Verdi Cycle, completed in 2016, that made Sarasota Opera the only opera company in the world to present all of Verdi’s works. Recognizing the importance of training, Maestro DeRenzi founded the Apprentice and Studio Artist’s programs. Sarasota Opera also maintains a commitment to education through its “Explorations in Opera” performances for local schools and the industry-leading Sarasota Youth Opera program.

Sarasota Opera is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Programs are supported in part by an award from the Tourist Development Tax through the Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council and the Sarasota County Arts Council. Additional funding is provided by the City of Sarasota and the County of Sarasota.