Opera Naples

This week, Sarasota Ballet performs “Romeo & Juliet;” Sarasota Opera House closes its 2024-2025 season with seven opera performances plus its Salute to the Stars; Gulfshore Opera performs Rusalka with the Florida Philharmonic; and Opera Naples screens the second of four Spring Film Series movies.

Opera Naples Festival Under the Stars closes on Saturday, March 15, with two performances of Tchaikovsky’s "Sleeping Beauty" performed by Gulfshore Ballet in the Wang Opera Center. Gulfshore Opera offers a “Taste of Opera” on Thursday at the Naples Sailing & Yacht Club. And the Sarasota Opera House will perform five different operas over the course of the week.

People in Naples are feeling a lot of civic pride about Opera Naples Festival Under the Stars. This major cultural event in the heart of Naples during the peak of tourist season is also a boon to local restaurants and shops.

This week, Luciano Pavarotti Foundation President Nicoletta Pavarotti will share details of her life with the famed tenor in the Wang Opera Center in Naples, Puccini’s “La boheme” and Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado” will each be performed twice in Cambier Park as part of the 5th Annual Opera Naples Festival Under the Stars, and The Sarasota Opera House will perform four different operas, while Sarasota Ballet will present the final performance by the acclaimed Mark Morris Dance Group.

Famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti died in 2007 at the age of 71. Six months later, his widow, Nicoletta Pavarotti, established a foundation in his name to keep his memory alive and bring opera to more people, as he always tried to do. She’s in Naples this week and next for the Opera Naples Festival Under the Stars. On March 3, she’ll appear at the Wang Opera Center to share details of her life with the famed tenor.

This week in Southwest Florida, Opera Naples and the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation will produce the 5th Annual Festival Under the Stars in Cambier Park, the Sarasota Opera House will perform three different operas, and Sarasota Ballet will present six performances by the acclaimed Mark Morris Dance Group.

Thunderous applause echoed through U. Tobe Recital Hall at the Bower School of Music as the names were announced of the four singers who won the inaugural Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition. They are soprano Luna Park, mezzo-soprano Simona Genga, tenor Minghao Liu and bass Camhur Gorgun.

The late Luciano Pavarotti ran an international voice competition in Philadelphia in the 1980s and '90s to foster emerging opera talent. Opera Naples and the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation are bringing it back! The competition will be held at FGCU's Bower School of Music & the Arts Thursday through Saturday.

In tandem with the Pavarotti Voice Competition, the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples Academy will present the comedic opera “Don Pasquale” in two performances this weekend. This weekend’s performances at the Wang Opera Center give some of today’s rising opera stars from around the world the opportunity to perform with a live orchestra.

Since the pandemic shutdowns, opera companies across the country have reported record levels of first-time attendees. Many are seeking that Julia Roberts experience.