Sarasota Opera Finalizes International Cast for Winter Festival

December 3, 2024 | Sarasota

Victor DeRenzi, artistic director and principal conductor, and Richard Russell, general director, have finalized the casting for Sarasota Opera’s 2025 Winter Opera Festival.  The season opens Saturday, Feb. 15, and will feature Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and Giuseppe Verdi’s Stiffelio. The casts of internationally recognized artists include some company favorites, along with singers making their company debuts.

Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana  and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, two verismo operas of love and betrayal and often referred to as Cav/Pag, will feature four Sarasota Opera veterans. 

Mezzo soprano Lisa Chavez, a New York City native, who last performed the title role in Massenet’s Thérèse, and Fidalma in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, will return as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana. This is her ninth principal role with the company. She has been described as possessing a “plush storm of a voice,” a “graceful stage presence,” as well as being “a powerhouse both vocally and emotionally.”

Puerto Rican tenor Rafael Dávila, celebrating his 21^st season with Sarasota Opera, will sing the roles of Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana as well as Canio in Pagliacci. Dávila recently completed his sixth season with the Metroplitan Opera where he performed the roles of Ismaele in Verdi’s Nabucco and Don José in the company’s new production of Carmen.

Baritone Jean Carlos Rodríguez, a native of the Dominican Republic, will sing the roles of Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana and Tonio in Pagliacci. He sang Enrico in last season’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor and sang in The Music of Giuseppe Verdi this past November. He also performed Germont inLa traviata and the title role in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Tampa. His love of opera began in high school and in 2017 he was accepted into the prestigious Sherrill Milnes’ Savannah Voice Festival where he sang the title role of Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro.  

Soprano Ashley Milanese will sing the role of Nedda in Pagliacci. Last season she made her Sarasota Opera debut in the title role in Donizetti’sLucia di Lammermoor and joined Opera in the Heights as Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème. She has toured with Komische Opera Berlin’s production of Die Zauberflöte where she sang Erste Dame and has performed in the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. The New Orleans, Louisiana native was named winner of the 2018 Opera Foundation competition.

Cav/Pag will be conducted by Sarasota Opera artistic director and principal conductor Victor DeRenzi, directed by Martha Collins, with set design by David P. Gordon. Costumes and lighting for all this season’s productions are by resident costume designer Howard Tsvi Kaplan and resident lighting designer Ken Yunker. Cav/Pag will be sung in Italian, with English supertitles for 10 performances through March 29.

Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, one of the most beloved comedic works in the operatic repertory, will open Saturday, Feb. 22.

Korean-American tenor, Hak Soo Kim, will sing the role of Count Almaviva, who is determined to win the heart of the beautiful Rosina. This is Kim’s seventh season with Sarasota Opera. His most recent performance here was as Lindoro in L’italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers). He was a resident tenor under the tutelage of Plácido Domingo at Los Angeles Opera. When he isn’t singing opera, Kim is performing as the head sommelier at Per Se restaurant in New York City. He has been profiled in Wine & Spirits magazine and interviewed for the podcast, Drinking on the Job.

Mezzo-soprano Lisa Maria Rogali will make her Sarasota debut as Rosina.She has sung Hansel in Opera Birmingham’s Hansel and Gretel and sang the title role in Carmen with Virginia Opera this fall. Opera News described her debut performance with Minnesota Opera as “a tour de force of diction, precision and pizzazz.” Her repertoire extends into the world of musical theater, where she has performed and covered leading roles such as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Louise in Gypsy and Maria in The Sound of Music.

Italian baritone Filippo Fontana will return to Sarasota Opera to reprise the the role of Figaro.  Before singing, he studied clarinet and piano as a child. He attended the 2009-2011 course at La Scala Academy where he made his debut in le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali. This is his eighth season with Sarasota Opera.

Italian bass-baritone Stefano de Peppo will sing the role of Doctor Bartolo. He has a long history with Sarasota Opera and last sang the role of Leporello in the company’s 2023 production of Don Giovanni. Internationally acclaimed, de Peppo has sung throughout United States, Europe, United Kingdom and Australia. His opera career began when de Peppo was a boy soprano in the Children Chorus of Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Bass Young Bok Kim, marking his 21^st year wih Sarasota Opera, will sing the role of Basilio. In Sarasota, he has sung the title role in Verdi’s Attila, Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Raimondo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, among others. A native of Korea, he has also sung Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with the National Opera of Korea and the Seoul Metropolitan Opera. Kim currently lives in New York and made his New York City Opera debut as Colline in La Bohème. 

The Barber of Seville will be conducted by Marcello Cormio, directed by Marco Nisticò, with set design by Jeffrey W. Dean. It will be sung in Italian, with English supertitles for 10 performances through March 29.

Continuing the story of The Barber of Seville, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro opens Saturday, March 8. 

Baritone Jake Stamatis, originally from Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, will sing the role of Count Almaviva. Formerly a Sarasota Opera studio artist, he has also been a fellow at the Music Academy of the West and an artist in residence with Tri-Cities Opera and Opera Memphis. His varied repertoire also includes Enrico in Lucia di Lammeroor,  Il conte in Le nozze di Figaro, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles, La Bête in La belle et la bête (Glass), and Anthony in Sweeney Todd.

Soprano Michelle Johnson will return to sing the role of Countess Almaviva. She has sung the title role in the company’s 2016 production of Verdi’s Aida. Johnson has performed the title role in Puccini’s Tosca with Opera on the James, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème with Nashville Opera, and Bess in Gerhwin’s Porgy and Bess with Des Moines Metro Opera. As a Grand Prize Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she has been hailed by critics as “a clear audience favorite,” lauded for her impeccable breath control and velvety voice. Johnson has also made a name for herself as one of the most in demand Aidas in the opera world today, performing Verdi’s tragic heroine with Glimmerglass Music Festival, Knoxville Opera and Sarasota Opera, among others. 

Soprano Virginia Mims will sing the role of Susanna. She has sung the role of Zemfira in Rachmaninoff’s Aleko and Cleopatra in Händel’s Giulio Cesarewith IU Opera Theater, and Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Brevard Music Center. She holds prizes and grant awards from prestigious organizations such as Schmidt Vocal Foundation, YoungArts Foundation, Orpheus Vocal Competition, and Il Circolo of the Palm Beaches. She follows in her mother Marilyn Mims’ footsteps. The elder Mims had an active opera career during the 1980s and 1990s. She performed at Sarasota Opera and was a regular performer at the Metropolitan Opera from 1988 to 1992.  

Italian bass-baritone Mattia Venni will make his Sarasota debut as Figaro. He most recently performed as Sulpice in the Parnassus Society’s February 2024 production of Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment. Venni had a successful career in the film industry as a camera operator in Paris, France and Los Angeles, California prior to switching careers in 2019. In 2020 he enrolled in UCLA after being accepted to three prestigious institutions: Conservatory Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA.

The Marriage of Figaro will be conducted by Louis Lohraseb and directed by Tom Diamond, with set design by J. Michael Wingfield. It will be sung in Italian, with English supertitles for seven performances through March 28.

Last seen in Sarasota in 2005, Verdi’s opera about infidelity and forgiveness,Stiffelio, opens Saturday, March 15. 
“Written by Verdi at the same time as Rigoletto and Il trovatore, Stiffelio was only rediscovered in 1968 after more than 110 years of neglect due to religious censorship,” DeRenzi said. “We are presenting it this season for the second time in our company’s history. It can be placed alongside Verdi’s great operas not only chronologically, but musically in many ways as well as how Verdi presents the lives of the characters.”

Tenor Victor Starsky will sing the title role. He made his Sarasota debut last season as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen. He has sung the roles of the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Opera Modesto, Radamès in Verdi’s Aïda, and Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with Charlottesville Opera. A native of New York City (Queens), Victor Starsky works as a teacher, martial artist and opera singer. From Carnegie Hall to Italy, his roles have included Rodolfo in LaBohème, Fernando in Così fan tutte and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.

Canadian-Italian soprano Aviva Fortunata will be back in Sarasota to sing the role of Lina. She made her Sarasota debut in 2023 as Elvira in Verdi’s Ernaniand sang the title role in Verdi’s Luisa Miller here in 2024. She was named twice as one of CBC’s Top 30 Canadian Classical Artists Under 30. Fortunata is an alumna of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Program.