{"id":26519,"date":"2025-10-30T12:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/26519\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T12:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:58:09","slug":"opera-tampas-love-v-death-is-the-kind-of-tale-that-could-only-happen-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/26519\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera Tampa’s ‘Love v. Death’ is the kind of tale that could only happen in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Close-upTom Sivak Credit: tomsivak.com<\/a><\/p>\n

If your idea of opera is a three-hour aria about gods and swans,\u00a0\u201cLove v. Death\u201d\u00a0might catch you off guard. And that\u2019s exactly how composer\u00a0Tom Sivak\u00a0likes it.<\/p>\n

A longtime musical-theatre conductor turned St. Pete composer, Sivak\u2019s new work\u2014opening this weekend with\u00a0Opera Tampa\u2014isn\u2019t interested in spectacle for spectacle\u2019s sake. It\u2019s a pair of true stories about ordinary people who stumbled into extraordinary circumstances, stitched together by humor, heartbreak, and a title that promises exactly what it delivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpera is such a wide-ranging genre,\u201d Sivak said. \u201cIt\u2019s very inclusive of many different approaches\u2026 I\u2019m telling a story, and of course, it\u2019s in English.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two acts, one obsession<\/p>\n

\u201cLove v. Death\u201d\u00a0unfolds as two one-hour operas linked by the same tug-of-war between devotion and mortality.<\/p>\n

Act I follows\u00a0Carl von Cosel, a Key West X-ray technician in the 1930s who fell for a young Cuban immigrant dying of tuberculosis. After she passed, he famously exhumed her body and lived with it for seven years.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of tale that could only happen in Florida\u2014part gothic romance, part tabloid fever dream. Sivak read von Cosel\u2019s own diary (yes, it exists) and wove the man\u2019s real words into his libretto.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis love was so big it required someone singing high A-flats,\u201d he joked. \u201cHe didn\u2019t feel that he did anything wrong. He just loved her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Absurd? Absolutely. But that\u2019s what drew him in. Sivak writes for the moment where the grotesque crosses into empathy\u2014when the audience laughs, then feels uncomfortable for laughing.<\/p>\n

Act II shifts tone to\u00a0Mary Mallon, the Irish-born cook better known as\u00a0Typhoid Mary. The first documented asymptomatic superspreader, she was blamed for infecting dozens of New Yorkers and ultimately quarantined for life without trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone that she cares for is taken from her,\u201d Sivak said. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t know why\u2014and when they tell her, she can\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With scant details about Mallon\u2019s private life, Sivak imagined one for her. His Mary isn\u2019t a headline; she\u2019s a woman whose love keeps killing the people she feeds.Where von Cosel\u2019s devotion defeats death, Mallon\u2019s affection becomes her curse.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth stories are dark comedies,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid just because death sounds horrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

How a one-act turned into a world premiere<\/p>\n

The project began in 2019, when\u00a0Creative Pinellas\u00a0awarded Sivak a grant to produce a one-act opera at The Palladium. Among the cast was\u00a0Melissa Misener, a young performer who later became a director at Opera Tampa.<\/p>\n

Years later, Misener called him with an idea: write a companion act and make it a full evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe asked if I\u2019d be willing to write a second act,\u201d Sivak recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s how we got here.\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s production\u2014directed by Misener and conducted by\u00a0Robin Andrew Stamper\u2014features a cast of 11 and a six-piece orchestra. It\u2019s part of Opera Tampa\u2019s continued push toward new American works, staged in the Jaeb Theater\u2019s intimate setting.<\/p>\n

Between musical theatre and the opera house<\/p>\n

Sivak\u2019s career straddles both worlds. He spent decades conducting shows like\u00a0\u201cFiddler\u00a0and\u00a0Guys and Dolls\u201d\u00a0before devoting his retirement to composition full-time. That musical-theatre DNA is what makes\u00a0\u201cLove v. Death\u201d\u00a0tick: the melodies are approachable, the stories sharply drawn, and the emotions immediate.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not simplifying opera; he\u2019s personalizing it.He writes for people who might walk into a theatre unsure what to expect\u2014and walk out surprised they were moved.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne woman told me, \u2018I don\u2019t like opera, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed this,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly who I wrote it for.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sivak, opera isn\u2019t about grandiosity\u2014it\u2019s about truth sung loud enough to shake the room. In\u00a0\u201cLove v. Death,\u201d that truth is messy, morbid, and funny as hell.<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/p>\n

\u201cLove v. Death\u201d\u00a0arrives at a time when opera companies across the country are rethinking what \u201copera\u201d even means: shorter runtimes, real-world stories, and music that meets audiences where they are.<\/p>\n

Sivak\u2019s work fits squarely in that movement\u2014but with a Florida twist. He\u2019s not staging Greek tragedy; he\u2019s staging our own history\u2019s weirdest headlines and asking what they reveal about the way we love.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove v. Death\u201d\u00a0doesn\u2019t ask whether love conquers all. It asks what happens when it refuses to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpera, for me,\u201d Sivak said, \u201cis about telling human stories\u2014sometimes strange, sometimes funny\u2014but always honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

This post<\/a> first appeared at TB Arts Passport, which is part of the Tampa Bay Journalism Project (TBJP), a nascent Creative Loafing Tampa Bay effort supported by grants and a coalition of donors who make specific contributions via the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If you are a non-paywalled Bay area publication interested in TBJP, please email rroa@ctampa.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support TB Arts Passport by subscribing to its free newsletter or becoming a paying Arts Passport Member<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n

This article appears in Oct. 30 \u2013 Nov. 5, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\t