The four directors of this year’s Sarasota Opera productions began their careers as singers.
‘The Elixir of Love’: By Gaetano Donizetti. Conducted by John F. Spencer IV, directed by Marco Nistico. Opens 7:30 p.m. Saturday and continues in repertory through March 21. Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org
Baritone Marco Nistico has built a strong following at Sarasota Opera over the last decade with his roles in “Rigoletto,” “La traviata,” Don Carlos,” “Aida” and more.
But this season, he takes on a new role as stage director of the company’s “The Elixir of Love,” by Gaetano Donizetti, which puts him among a distinct group of singers-turned-directors. In fact, all of Sarasota Opera’s mainstage productions this season are staged by men and women who began their careers as singers.
Stephanie Sundine, a soprano who starred in many productions in Sarasota, has been directing for more than two decades at the company where her husband, Victor DeRenzi, is the artistic director. This season, she stages “La Wally,” not seen in America since the Sarasota Opera’s 1989 production in which she played the title role.
Martha Collins, the director of “Romeo and Juliet,” had an extensive singing career (she appeared as Mimi in the scenes from “La boheme” featured in the film “Moonstruck” ) before vocal issues became problematic and she found a new passion in directing.
Both Nistico and Mark Freiman, the director of this season’s “La boheme,” are still singing. (Freiman appeared in Sarasota Opera’s 2006 production of “La boheme,” which was directed by Sundine.)
It may be the first time in any opera company where all the stage directors in a given season are current or former singers, and the four gathered during a recent break from rehearsals to talk about what singers bring to the directing job that others may not.
“So many singers are so focused. To be an opera singer is a challenge, all the languages, keeping your voice at a certain level, keeping your health at a certain level,” Collins said. “People don’t then put their time into learning how lighting works, or how the production designs come together. I was always unintentionally fascinated by all of that and always thinking about how could I apply it to my singing. I realize, in retrospect, that I was learning directing skills because I was fascinated by all of it.”
It’s more common for singers to become “voice teachers or coaches,” said Sundine, who had no such desire. “I’d be no good at it. I want people to be more expressive vocally, which I can do as a director,” she said. “But teaching them how to cover that A flat holds no interest.”
Frieman said singers are well suited to directing because “we understand what a singer needs to go through in a performance, to get a dramatic effect.”
Sundine added, “If we ask them to do something that’s not comfortable, we understand in a heartbeat what they’re going through and give them another option.”
Nistico, who recently was named general director of Opera on the James in Lynchburg, Virginia, is relatively new to directing. “Elixir” will be just his third production, and he’s still trying to decide how much singing he will do in the future.
Freiman said directing gives him more “options to get work. Sometimes I sing small roles in my productions, and the best part is if it’s a comic part then I can do all my comic shtick and I don’t have to get permission from my director.”
Nistico said singers bring a lot of musical knowledge that some stage directors don’t have. “A lot of directors I’ve worked with don’t understand the music in the same way, which doesn’t mean they’re bad directors. A lot of the stuff in the score, what is often called subtext, is already decided within the music. Very rarely, we would fight it. We understand what it is to follow those dramatic choices a composer has made and also timing movement with the music.”
Freiman said that when he’s staging a production in advance of rehearsals, “I’m imagining myself in all the bodies of these characters. When does it feel right to turn to do a gesture?”
Collins said it’s “fun to vicariously do all the roles.”
Nistico is staging a production that will be conducted by John F. Spencer IV, who previously conducted the 2018 production of “Carmen” and served on the company’s music staff.
The cast features Sarasota native Adelaide Boedecker, who discovered her future career when she began performing with the Sarasota Youth Opera. She plays Adina, a wealthy landowner, who is pursued by several men. Tenor Geoffrey Agpalo makes his Sarasota debut as a young man who gets no attention from Adina, and Alexi DeSocio plays Sergeant Belcore, another potential suitor. Returning bass baritone Stefano de Peppo plays the traveling salesman Doctor Dulcamara.
“Elixir” is one of more than 70 operas Donizetti wrote during his 51 years of life. It premiered in 1832 in Milan, and features the aria “Una furtiva lagrima” (A furtive tear), which has been heard in such films as “The Age of Innocence” and Woody Allen’s “Match Point.”
Nistico said he has learned valuable lessons from his experiences performing in productions staged by Collins and Sundine.
“My first one here was with Martha, early Verdi, and it was right in the middle of me learning how to sing these roles and plus, I was playing a very old character, so we worked on age and all that, which was fascinating. And with Stephanie, I’ve done all the biggest repertoire of my career, ‘Don Carlos,’ ‘Aida,’ ‘Rigoletto’ twice. She really helped in discovering the staples of the repertoire. This is all stuff that informs everything you do as a theater and opera practitioner, whatever you do as a singer, director or an administrator. Everything is there.”
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