As he stood on the stage of the Sarasota Opera House to reveal the Sarasota Opera’s 2026-27 season for the first time on his own, general director Richard Russell relaxed and smiled when he heard the applause that greeted the announcement of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore.

Such a piece would never have been produced during the 44-year tenure of artistic director Victor DeRenzi, who announced in December that he would step down this spring.

DeRenzi took over in 1982, when Sarasota Opera was just beginning to stage its own productions at the Historic Asolo Theater and was raising money to turn a dilapidated old movie theater into the Sarasota Opera House. Over the years, he built it into a major, internationally respected regional company that has focused on traditional works and staying true to a composer’s intentions.

Russell, who will add the role of artistic director to his title, said that while the repertoire may broaden over time, DeRenzi’s approach will remain intact.

“The structure of the company and how it’s made up is part of his legacy and that’s something we’re going to maintain, and something I’ll aspire to in the future,” he told several hundred people at the announcement in early February, a few days before the start of the 2026 winter season.

That structure includes generally five weeks of rehearsals, far more than most regional opera companies, which often put shows together in just a few days. DeRenzi has overseen more than 1,500 performances of 218 productions, and he conducted close to 900 performances himself. 

Russell has served as general director since 2021 after serving as executive director since 2012. He said his contract determined that he would take over whenever DeRenzi decided to leave or retire.

He did not expect it to be so soon.

“I always saw that my job was kind of preparing for the post-DeRenzi era," Russell says. “I always said, from day one, that I didn’t want to push Victor out. I wanted to be there to support him as long as he wanted to do it, but when the time came, that I was ready to take over.”

The two men worked closely together for the last 14 years “deciding what Victor would like to do, or what was consistent with Victor’s vision, and what we could afford to do and how it would sell and what the right mix is,” Russell says.

In planning future seasons, he will be relying on many long-term staff members, including Martha Collins, a former singer who now directs at least one production a year and is the opera's director of education, and Jessé Martins, music director of the Sarasota Youth Opera. Collins has been with the company since 2004; Martins spent the last 15 years there and has conducted mainstage productions. Russell will also be hiring many of the same directors, designers and conductors who have worked with the company for years.

A New Direction? 

Audiences should not expect drastic changes, but rather subtle shifts, like introducing Gilbert and Sullivan for the first time.

“I have many guilty pleasures in my life. One of them is ice cream and one of them is Gilbert and Sullivan,” Russell said at the announcement. 

H.M.S. Pinafore is part of a winter season that opens with a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, last produced in 2017, and two works that haven’t been seen in years: Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, last presented in 2002, and Leoš Janáček’s Jenufa, last staged in 1998. The fall season will feature Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and the Sarasota Youth Opera will present a new production of Rachel J. Peters’ Rootabaga Country, which the company commissioned and first produced in 2017.

Russell and DeRenzi had been working on the 2026-27 season when the maestro made his decision to leave, and Russell worked around their plans for Hansel and Gretel and La traviata, which will mark the first time Verdi has been conducted by someone other than DeRenzi in more than four decades at Sarasota Opera

“Victor and I do have similar views on the traditional nature of our productions,” he says. “But we have slightly different views on what can be done within that framework.”

Russell did say that Verdi will “continue to be part of the repertory of Sarasota Opera. It cannot go away. We’re also looking for new works, work that we haven’t done in a long time.”

Sarasota Opera bills itself as Verdi’s American home. During the company’s 28-year Verdi Cycle, which began in 1989 and ended in 2016, it became the only company in the world to perform all of Verdi’s music. DeRenzi conducted all if it.

Russell said he hopes to give his stage directors more freedom with how they approach productions while staying true to a composer’s intentions,

“I want them to use their ability to help tell that story in a really compelling way, dramatically or comedically,” he says. “I don’t believe the pieces really need reinterpretation to make them relevant for the modern era.”

Those hoping to see far more contemporary works may be disappointed or need patience.

“One of the projects I’m looking at potentially involves new work,” Russell says. “However, I don’t think that it could be part of our regular season. It wouldn’t be part of our winter festival because of the volume of things we do, the number of tickets we sell. I think that would be difficult, at least for now.”

Instead, he’s hoping to create some kind of adjunct programming to the season that would include new works. He said audiences have asked for more performances during the year outside the traditional fall and winter seasons.

He also hopes that new productions of operas that haven’t been done in Sarasota in more than two decades, like Ariadne auf Naxos and Jenufa, will attract people looking for something different.

Jenufa will feature internationally renowned Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, who once sang the title role during her long association with the Metropolitan Opera. In Sarasota, she will sing the role of the stepmother, Kostelnička, which Russell describes as “one of the greatest dramatic parts in opera.”

Mattila may not be a household name, but Russell says “there are lots of people who go to the opera who will be excited to see her here, who have not had the opportunity to hear her sing in a number of years.”

Mattila also will help the company launch its first Artist in Residence program. In addition to her performances, she will spend time mentoring studio and apprentice artists.

“We’ve had the occasional guest artist come through town for a master class, but [Mattila] will be here for more than a month, and she will be doing master classes and private coaching and talk about what it’s like to have a career on that international level," Russell says. "She was one of the biggest stars in opera."

Growing Up With Opera

Russell is not taking over the company as some outsider. He first came to Sarasota in 1989 as an apprentice singer and eventually was cast in principal roles over a four-year period. He left music for a while to work with CitiCorp, developing websites for emerging markets’ clients at the beginning of the internet era.

But he came back to Sarasota each season to see all the opera's productions until he was hired as director of marketing in 2005. He spent two years as general director of Opera New Jersey in Princeton before he returned to Sarasota Opera as executive director in 2012, following the departure of Susan Danis. His title was changed to general director in 2021, and Russell says his contract determined that he would take over whenever DeRenzi decided to depart.

Russell says he fell in love with opera when he was about 11 and saw his first production of Carmen at the New York City Opera.

“I always loved to sing. I always loved to be a performer,” he says. “Obviously, I didn’t think when I was 11 that I’d be an opera singer, but I started singing opera pretty soon after that. I wanted to have a great career. It didn’t happen the way I wanted to, and that’s OK. It led me to another path.”

Just as he was finding his own voice as a singer, he discovered he was dealing with a bad case of reflux and thought it was time “to hang it up." He got involved in the banking industry, which provided a more stable income.

He got some advice on his transition from DeRenzi’s wife, Stephanie Sundine, who built what Russell described as a “great, fabulous career, singing at all the big opera houses. She was a star.” She was definitely a star at Sarasota Opera, appearing at least once a season before vocal issues became a problem. She shifted to directing in Sarasota and elsewhere.

Now, Russell will help other people fall in love with the music he loves and support emerging young singers who are hired as apprentices, studio artists and principals.

“Some of our principals are at the brink of a significant career, I think,” he says.

Familiar artists will be involved in the season’s productions, such as Sarasota Opera favorite Lisa Chavez as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel,” Virginia Mims and Luke Norvell in La traviata, Hanna Brammer as Josephine in Pinafore and Victor Starsky as Steva in Jenufa.

Behind the scenes, Collins will direct and Martins will conduct Ariadne. David Neely returns to conduct Jenufa; John Spencer IV, who has been part of the company’s music staff, will conduct Pinafore. Marco Nistico, a former singer who has directed several productions for Sarasota Opera, returns to stage “La traviata,” with Marcello Cormio returning to conduct. 

Sarasota Opera 2026-27 season

Hansel and Gretel

Oct. 30-Nov. 14, 2027

La traviata

Feb. 6-March 20, 2027

H.M.S. Pinafore

Feb. 13-March 19, 2027

Ariadne auf Naxos

Feb. 27-March 13, 2027

Jenufa

Feb. 27-March 13, 2027

Sarasota Youth Opera Performances

Rootabaga Country

Nov. 7-8, 2026

Subscriptions for the new season go on sale March 16. Single tickets will be available online Aug. 1 and at the box office and by phone on Sept. 1. For more information call 941-328-1300 or go to sarasotaopera.org

This story was originally published by ArtsBeat, a non-profit website producing coverage of the arts scene in the Sarasota area. Learn more at ArtsBeat.org.