A Different Kind of Season

The following guest column by Gulf Coast President/CEO Mark Pritchett appeared in the February 20 edition of SRQ Daily:

“A different kind of season.”

That’s how Richard Russell, executive director of Sarasota Opera, has understatedly described his company’s artistic output right now. The Opera just kicked off its Winter Festival of “chamber operas” with Rossini’s The Happy Deception. Newly discovered and appreciated by Russell and Maestro Victor DeRenzi, these works allow for fewer performers, smaller sets, no intermission and well-spaced audiences. The Opera also livestreams the performances and records them for patrons to enjoy from home via online subscription.

Sarasota Opera was among the fastest and most forward-thinking of our region’s arts leaders in responding to COVID-19. It put artist and audience safety first, while still finding fresh ways to connect the two. Before the Sarasota Opera House could reopen safely, the company took its talent to the community. It staged outdoor performances at partner sites like Selby Gardens and Historic Spanish Point. It also assembled a first-of-its-kind “Opera Mobile,” a muscular red pickup that can haul a piano and a few performers behind it on a flat-bed trailer. Meanwhile, it optimized the AC system in the historic Opera House and added technology to eliminate airborne germs and viruses. Russell even took a course in contact tracing.

As I’ve talked to passionate people on both sides of the artistic relationship over the past year, I’ve seen just how big a void is left in our community when its stages must go dark. It’s a cultural, social and economic loss. Remember, the arts represent the second-biggest employer in our area, as Russell is quick to note. But it’s not only a paycheck that resident artists desperately miss. It’s also doing what they truly love—what they were born to do. Thank goodness, then, for the boundless imagination and talent of our community’s creatives.

Read the rest of Mark's column in SRQ Daily