Sarasota Opera House
61 North Pineapple Avenue
Sarasota FL 34236
Phone: 941-366-8450
Fax: 941-955-5571
Email: [email protected]
Description:
Mission:
Sarasota Opera produces outstanding opera true to the vision of the composer to entertain, enrich, and educate our communities, as well as patrons from across the state and around the world.
The Sarasota Opera is an internationally respected producer of the highest quality professional opera. It fosters artistic excellence, diversity, and vitality in the Sarasota area by:
Producing opera as a living art form through performances and composition
Offering a stage for American-trained principal artists
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Producing high-caliber Apprentice and Studio Artist programs
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Owning, maintaining, and operating the Opera House as a year-round facility
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Promoting and increasing public knowledge and appreciation of opera
In addition to striving for artistic excellence, Sarasota Opera directs itself toward becoming accessible to all segments of the greater community. Coordinated artistic, educational, informational, and social outreach programs to accomplish this accessibility.
History:
Arthur Britton ("A.B.") Edwards was born in Sarasota in 1874. A true business pioneer, he not only established the first real estate office in Sarasota in 1903, he became the first mayor. Archival photos reveal Sarasota as a simple hamlet with buildings of wood and riddled with bungalow hideaways. The handsome little town was beginning to take its place on the resort map.
Edwards had a vision for Sarasota, and with the infusion of an increasingly healthy real estate market (due largely to the efforts of John Ringling) he set out to realize his dream. Mr. Edwards commissioned Jacksonville architect, Roy A. Benjamin to design a "multi-purpose" building that could accommodate all types of entertainment- including opera.
On April 10, 1926, the A.B. Edwards Theater was unveiled. The Sarasota Herald Tribune hailed Edwards for "having admitted Sarasota into a fairyland of costly decoration, rich furnishings and never to be forgotten artistry". The entrance facade of the theater was designed in the very popular Mediterranean Revival style of the era.
Cream colored stucco embellished with ornamental plasterwork and imitation stone delighted the opening night audience. The elaborate three-story entrance contained 8 shops on the ground floor, 12 offices on the second floor, and 12 furnished apartments on the third. All floors faced a central atrium. The theater auditorium, stage and fly tower occupied the remainder of the building. A glorious Robert Morton orchestral pipe organ completed the stunning scenario. Edwards had realized his vision.