Opera is alive and well in St. Petersburg
Opera may be something of an acquired taste, but for those who love it, no other art form comes close in terms of delivering drama, dynamics or pure passion. In 2005, when opera entered his life, Mark Sforzini was 35 years old and bored with his role as the Florida Orchestra’s principal bassoon player. He’d sat in that chair for 15 long years.
The Palladium Theater hired Sforzini – who’d been composing and conducting classical music on the side – to handle the baton for a production of Madama Butterfly featuring local singers, mostly students and semi-professionals.
Both performances sold out.
“When I conducted that, I just felt like I was supposed to be doing opera,” Sforzini says. “It was just a very strong gut feeling.”
Next came The Barber of Seville and Die Fledermaus, with Sforzini taking more of an active role. He insisted on hiring real, experienced stage directors and holding auditions for the vocalists.
More sellouts. Hmm, thought Sforzini. I think I’m on to something here.
Maestro Sforzini onstage at the St. Petersburg Opera Company’s 2017 holiday concert.
He made the acquaintance of Doyle McClendon, an arts aficionado with deep pockets. The retired software executive was also an opera lover, and had already helped fund an opera company in Sarasota.
McClendon offered to subsidize Sforzini in an organization of his own. “Doyle and his wife Mary Alice were fans,” according to Sforzini. “They were willing to put more money towards it, but they wanted to see that money go towards the opera – sets and costumes and voices – and not necessarily towards repairs for the Palladium.”
McClendon pledged $50,000 for each production by the St. Petersburg Opera Company – Sforzini came up with the name – which debuted with La Boheme in June 2007. Out of the gate, audiences ate it up. “The ticket sales were probably equal to $50,000 each production, too,” Sforzini points out. “So we were operating on about a $200,000 annual budget.”
St. Petersburg College had taken over management of the Palladium, so the St. Pete Opera Company suddenly had to pay rent just like everybody else. With no fly space (for lowering set pieces and scene-changing backgrounds onto the stage), no orchestra pit and very little “wing space” (extra room on the sides of the stage), the Palladium was – and is to this day – something of a challenge for St. Pete Opera. For most shows, Sforzini and his hand-picked orchestra are hidden upstage, behind the sets and the singers.
Running the company has not been without its challenges, either. Besieged by personal and financial problems, McClendon withdrew his support.
With Big Daddy out of the picture, Sforzini had to think on his feet. “We had applied for our nonprofit status in February 2007,” he says. “It took effect about 18 months later, as we were beginning what we call our third season.
“The economy had gone south, and Doyle wasn’t really going to be able to fund us like he had. So I had to go out and start doing real fundraising. And I got 100 donors that third season.”
“The Magic Flute”
Today, 10 years after its creation, the St. Petersburg Opera Company operates on an annual budget of $1.34 million. According to Sforzini, 55 percent comes from contributions and donors, with ticket sales – including about 450 season subscribers – covering 40 percent.
City, county and state grants, he says, provide less than five percent of the company’s budget. For 2017-2018, St. Pete Opera received $28,000 from the State of Florida.
In the budget approved last week by the Florida legislature, $2.65 million is included in the Cultural and Museum Grants category – to be shared by something like 500 organizations around the state. The previous year’s figure was $11.1 million. In 2016, it was $19 million.
“That’s just so sad,” Sforzini says. “I think people need to contact their legislators and let them know that the arts need to be funded.”
Meanwhile, there’s opera to be produced, and a successful company to run. Five years ago, Sforzini and his staff of six moved into a 10,000-foot building – formerly an auto mechanic’s shop, then a dry cleaner, then a recording studio – on 1st Avenue South. He refers to it as “Opera Central.”
It has everything an opera group could wish for – big rehearsal rooms, a performance space, offices and storage room for a massive costume shop. “I think we might soon outgrow it,” Sforzini says with a smile.
Also simmering on back burners: Daisy, an opera Sforzini has been writing, off and on for several years, about the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby; and maybe even the construction of St. Petersburg’s first acoustically-perfect opera house. Fingers crossed.
“Faust”
St. Pete Opera produces three fully-staged operas each season, plus one Broadway or “light opera” show, and a holiday program. There are other, small programs throughout the year. Sforzini, who’s also music director of the Tampa Bay Symphony, hires local musicians, and holds national auditions for vocalists.
Nearly 800 singers turned up for his most recent auditions. The word is out, he says, among the national and international opera crowd – there are good things happening in St. Petersburg, Florida.
“I feel so blessed to have the donors and the patrons and the supporters that I do,” Sforzini adds. “I’ve been so fortunate. And it’s not just me, this is not just my thing, all of those donors – this is their baby, too. They’ve helped build this company too, with their donations, with their attendance, with their enthusiasm and their word-of-mouth.”
The next St. Petersburg Opera Company production will be La Traviata, June 1-5. Find out more about it here.
