Review of Sarasota Opera's Verdi Grand Finale concert

The Classical Voice of North America has posted my review of Sarasota Opera's final concert, which celebrated the company's Verdi Cycle - a 28 year effort to perform all of his works, including his operas, choruses, orchestral pieces, songs for voice and piano, and piano pieces. While in Sarasota, I attended a conference that featured Verdi scholars who gave a number of presentations. One of the specialists was Emily Richmond Pollock, who is an Assistant Professor in the Music and Theater Arts Section at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a native of Beaverton, Oregon and was the principal oboist of the Portland Youth Philhamonic when Huw Edwards was in charge.


As part of the Sarasota celebration, the opera company invited members of the Verdi family. So, here is a photo of the great, great grandchildren of Giuseppe Verdi with Sarasota Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi and Executive Director Richard Russell.

From left to right: Maestro Victor DeRenzi, Manuela Pizzoni, Angiolo Carrara Verdi, Maria Mercedes Carrara Verdi, Massimo Antoni, and Richard Russell