The Sarasota Opera has announced its 2025 Winter Opera Festival. The season opens Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, 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 include some company favorites, along with singers making their Sarasota Opera debuts. All of the shows will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana  and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, two operas of love and betrayal and often referred to as Cav/Pag, will feature four Sarasota Opera veterans: Lisa Chavez, Rafael Dávila, Jean Carlos Rodríguez and Ashley Milanese. It will be conducted by Sarasota Opera artistic director and principal conductor Victor DeRenzi, directed by Martha Collins, with set design by David P. Gordon. 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, with mezzo-soprano Lisa Maria Rogali will make her Sarasota debut as Rosina. Filippo Fontana will return to Sarasota Opera to reprise the the role of Figaro; tenor Minghao Liu will make his debut as Count Almaviva; and bass-baritone Stefano de Peppo will sing the role of Dr. Bartolo. Finally, Bass Young Bok Kim, marking his 21^st year wih Sarasota Opera, will sing the role of Basilio. The Barber of Seville will be conducted by Marcello Cormio and directed by Marco Nisticò, with set design by Jeffrey W. Dean.

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro opens Saturday, March 8. Baritone Jake Stamatis will sing the role of Count Almaviva, soprano Michelle Johnson will sing the role of Countess Almaviva, soprano Virginia Mims will sing the role of Susanna, bass-baritone Mattia Venni will make his Sarasota debut as Figaro, mezzo-soprano Tessa Fackelmann will make her Sarasota debut as the Cherubino, and bass Brian Kontes will return to Sarasota to sing Bartolo. The Marriage of Figaro will be conducted by Louis Lohraseb and directed by Tom Diamond, with set design by J. Mchael Wingfield. 

Finally, 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 rediscovered in 1968 after more than 110 years of neglect due to religious censorship. Tenor Victor Starsky will sing the title role, and soprano Aviva Fortunata will sing the role of Lina. Baritone Ricardo José Rivera will sing the role of Count Stankar and Bass Youg Bok Kim will sing the role of Jorg. Stiffelio will be conducted by Sarasota Opera artistic director and principal conductor Victor DeRenzi and directed by Stephanie Sundine, with set design by Steven C. Kemp. 

Single tickets for the 2025 Winter Opera Festival go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 3. For more information, click here.