‘Carmen’ carries on traditions to open new Sarasota Opera season

Even as she’s rehearsing with the Sarasota Opera to develop the sultry swagger, confidence and determination that are the hallmarks of the fiery gypsy known as Carmen, mezzo soprano Chelsea Laggan is still in a bit of disbelief that she has such an opportunity at this point in her career.

A year ago, she was part of the Studio Artists, the company’s advanced-level training program. Before she left town, she auditioned with Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi for the title role in Georges Bizet’s enduringly popular opera about the gypsy who stirs jealousy as she drops an army corporal as a lover in favor of a bullfighter.

“I have done a number of roles but in much smaller capacities,” Laggan said. “This is the biggest stage that I’ve been entrusted in a leading role and it’s really an amazing opportunity for me to not only come back to Sarasota and continue working with everyone in the program, but to be given the responsibility and support to really create my first role.”

Sarasota Opera has a history of casting rising singers who are growing into leading roles and expanding their repertoires. While many regional companies put productions together in a matter of days, Sarasota Opera gives its casts several weeks of rehearsals and then multiple performances. Laggan will get to sing in a dozen performances of “Carmen,” the most of any of the four operas to be presented this season.

“We get a good rehearsal period. It’s not like people are going on and winging it as happens at other companies,” said Martha Collins, a former singer who is the stage director of “Carmen.” “Chelsea, as a singer, has a chance to learn the role, but also how to pace the role, how to respond to the audience, how different audiences respond, those things you hear about, but to really experience them is pretty rare.”

“Carmen” is the opening production of a four-show Sarasota Opera season that includes Gaetano Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” last performed in Sarasota in 2012; Giuseppe Verdi’s “Luisa Miller,” last performed in 1999; and Joseph Haydn’s rarely seen “Deceit Outwitted” in its Sarasota debut.

It’s a fairly typical winter season for the company with a mix of popular or familiar operas, a rarity and one Verdi opera at a theater that has referred to itself as “Verdi’s Home in America.” DeRenzi conducted just about every note Verdi ever wrote during the company’s 28-year Verdi Cycle. It featured concerts and recitals and every one of his operas, including revised versions.

Attracting new audiences

Like many other arts organizations, Sarasota Opera has been working hard to bring back audience members who stopped attending live performances during the COVID pandemic.

“Some of our people who were regulars and going to everything are not going to as much and some never came back. But our new ticket-buyer numbers are through the roof,” said General Director Richard Russell. “About 40 percent of our audience last year had never been to see us before. During our fall concerts in November, 15 percent had not been in the Opera House before. We’re seeing good healthy numbers in new ticket buyers in our winter season.”

DeRenzi’s mission is always to “present the opera as close to the composer’s intentions as possible.” Sarasota Opera is not a place for audiences to see high concept productions, like the Metropolitan Opera’s current production of “Carmen,” which resets the story to modern-day America as a way of “reinvigorating the classic story,” director Carrie Cracknell told The New York Times.

Attitudes about women and their independence have changed drastically since “Carmen” was first produced in 1875, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be staged today, DeRenzi said.

“Audiences bring something to any work, they bring their sensibilities and no one sees this opera in the same way as 1875,” DeRenzi said. “If ‘Carmen’ was only valid in 1875, then we wouldn’t do it.”

The company’s approach to following a composer’s intent is also a boon to a singer like Laggan.

“Singing Carmen is an amazing gift, but singing Carmen in a traditional setting exactly as Bizet wrote it and not putting on all these machinations and cloaking devices – she’s in a gorilla suit or something – is such an amazing gift to me to sing exactly what’s in the score. It gives us a lot more depth,” Laggan said.

The cast

Laggan stars with three newcomers to the company. Tenor Victor Starsky makes his Sarasota Opera debut as the jealous soldier Don José, which he has sung with Opera Tampa. Baritone Andrew Manea plays his rival, the toreador Escamillo. He has performed with San Francisco Opera, Palm Beach Opera and Arizona Opera. Soprano Sarah Tucker reprises the role of Micaela she previously performed with San Diego Opera and Arizona Opera.

DeRenzi conducts the Sarasota Opera Orchestra (he also will conduct “Luisa Miller”), and Collins returns as director after staging the company’s 2012 and 2018 productions of “Carmen.”

She’s working with the same scenic design by David P. Gordon from past productions, but with a different conductor and a new cast, each version becomes something new.

“It leaves me in a great place. I believe in these characters. I believe in this story,” she said. “It’s not an opera that needs to be set in Brooklyn to make it interesting. It needs the time in rehearsal to really be able to evolve into characters, develop that wonderful collaborative unity of storytelling to move the audience.

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Also coming this season:

“Lucia di Lammermoor,” by Gaetano Donizetti, is about a man who promises to marry his sister to a Scottish nobleman to save his family’s fortunes, even though she is in love with someone else from a rival family. Last produced by Sarasota Opera in 2012, it features Ashley Milanese in her company debut as Lucia. Christopher Oglesby, who played Pinkerton in last season’s “Madame Butterfly,” returns as her lover Edgardo, with baritone Jean Carlos Rodriguez making his debut as Lucia’s brother. Jesse Martins, music director of the Sarasota Youth Opera, conducts, and Mark Freiman returns as stage director. Feb. 24-March 24.

“Luisa Miller,” by Giuseppe Verdi, stars Avivia Fortunata in the title role, the daughter of an old soldier who is in love with the son of a ruthless count who opposes their relationship.  Fortunata starred in last season’s “Ernani.” Tenor Rafael Davila, who plays Rodolfo, the man she loves, is marking his 20th anniversary with the company. Vladyslav Buialskyi makes his Sarasota debut as Rodolfo’s father, Count Walter, and baritone Ricardo Jose River returns as Luisa’s father. DeRenzi conducts and Stephanie Sundine is the stage director. March 9-24

“Deceit Outwitted,” by Joseph Haydn, has its Sarasota Opera debut. Best known for instrumental works, he wrote more than a dozen operas that were not fully discovered until after World War II. In this comedy, a peasant wants his daughter to marry a rich farmer instead of the poor peasant she actually loves. It stars returning singers Hanna Brammer as Vespina, tenor William Davenport and baritone Filippo Fontana, along with Chinese-Korean soprano Yulan Piano making her Sarasota debut. Anthony Barrese returns as conductor and Marco Nistico, a former singer who is also the company’s artistic administrator, will be the stage director. March 15-23.

Sarasota Opera

‘Carmen’ runs Feb. 17-March 22. All performances are at the Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. For ticket information: 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Singer ready to take charge as ‘Carmen’ at Sarasota Opera