St. Pete Opera to join New Tampa festival
- Chuck Merlis
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
This article was originally published in the Tampa Beacon. Read it here.
TAMPA — For 20 years, St. Pete Opera has staged its productions in downtown St. Petersburg. Now, for the first time, the company is stepping onto a new stage: the New Tampa Performing Arts Center.
The opera company will close out the 2025 Annual Arts Festival, set for Sept. 12-14, with a 45-minute program designed to showcase the breadth of opera and, maybe, even convert a few skeptics.
“We’re starting our 20th anniversary season this fall, which is really exciting,” said Mark Sforzini, general director of St. Pete Opera. “We usually put on three major opera productions every season at the Palladium Theater, but we also do a lot of other outreach and events. So we’re happy to be able to do something at the festival this year.”
The arts festival has become a signature event for the New Tampa Performing Arts Center since its opening in 2023. Over three days, the free event will feature almost two dozen groups performing music, theater, dance and comedy.
“It's three days of free performances by close to two dozen different performing arts organizations,” said Keith Arsenault, the center’s managing director. “We have shows on the main stage, pianists in the lobby and smaller performances in our studios. On Saturday, we have events geared for families and kids, including the Florida Orchestra’s instrument petting zoo. It’s quite a sight to behold.”
The lineup also reflects the cultural diversity of New Tampa.
“We have the Wattaka Choir, which is a Venezuelan expat chorus. We have the Anna Dance Academy, which is a Chinese-Korean dance company. We have Rudram, which is an Indian dance company,” Arsenault said. “We are so diverse out here.”
‘Covering all the bases’
St. Pete Opera’s festival program is relatively short but nonetheless ambitious.
“We’re kind of covering all the bases,” Sforzini said. “We have something from Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro,’ bel canto opera by Donizetti; verismo opera by Puccini; and Leonard Bernstein, who wrote operatic works that are almost like Broadway shows.”
The program even ventures beyond the traditional opera canon.
“One of our singers is doing a Kander and Ebb piece from ‘The World Goes Round,’” Sforzini said.The program will conclude with a quartet from Puccini’s “La Bohème.”
“The music is so powerful,” Sforzini said. “The melodies sweep your soul away.”
Also at the festival, there will be a collaboration Tampa City Ballet and St. Pete Opera on the famous “Flower Duet” from “Lakmé.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to get all the forces together,” Sforzini said. “One singer lives in St. Pete, another in Orlando, and the dancers are in Tampa. So I provided the choreographer with a recording that represented the tempi, and she’s working with her dancers. We rehearse the music on our own. Then we’ll get together the afternoon before we perform it, for a quick little dress rehearsal. When we get together, all the magic is there.”
Arsenault, who has been St. Pete Opera’s lighting designer for more than 60 productions, said the partnership is a natural fit.
“Having St. Pete Opera here for the festival is going to be a wonderful addition and a great way to close out the festival,” he said.
Breaking down barriers
Both Sforzini and Arsenault view the festival as an opportunity to make opera more accessible.
“It’s a great sampler pack,” Arsenault said. “If you think you don’t like opera, be here on that Sunday night and Mark will disprove that for you.”
Sforzini agreed.
“The program really covers such a wide range of different types of opera. … I hope some people will hear us who aren’t familiar with opera and decide they’ve got to come check out some of our full productions over at the Palladium.”
The festival also reinforces the center’s broader mission of accessibility.
“We go out of our way to keep our prices reasonable,” Arsenault said. “This year, we’re instituting a new plan called Affordable Art, where on a number of performances we are reserving 40 tickets for only $10 apiece. We want no excuse for people saying they can’t afford to go see that.”
In three days, the festival will bring thousands of people through NTPAC’s doors. Last year, the festival drew more than 2,500 people, and Arsenault said he expects even more this year.
For many, the closing performance by St. Pete Opera may be their first encounter with live opera.
“It’s a no-risk evening,” Arsenault said. “And if you think you don’t like opera, well, Mark will prove you wrong.”
Visit the New Tampa Performing Arts Center’s website for more information about festival and its full slate of performers.
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