{"id":54174,"date":"2025-11-20T14:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/54174\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T14:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:57:10","slug":"opera-tampas-2025-26-mainstage-season-kicks-off-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/54174\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera Tampa\u2019s 2025-26 mainstage season kicks off this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TwoYi Li (L) and Cecilia Violetta L\u00f3pez in Opera Tampa\u2019s \u2018La Boh\u00e8me.\u2019 Credit: OperaTampa \/ Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in the 1990s, when Opera Tampa<\/a> was new, its offerings focused on works at least somewhat familiar to everyone, even to people who didn\u2019t know or care about opera. Pretty much everyone has heard of \u201cLa boh\u00e8me,\u201d \u201cCarmen,\u201d and \u201cLa traviata.\u201d And you know a lot of the music even if your knowledge of opera begins and ends with old Bugs Bunny cartoons. The repertoire was kind of like the greatest hits of opera, designed to introduce a city that had never before had a major opera company of its own to the joys of the art form.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say it was probably the top 15 operas,\u201d Robin Stamper told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. He\u2019s been part of the Opera Tampa family for a decade, in various roles, and is now in his fifth year as artistic director.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Opera Tampa has injected more and more works that aren\u2019t as commonly known or frequently staged. That\u2019s especially true this year.<\/p>\n

Opera Tampa\u2019s Robin Stamper: \u2018I\u2019m trying to bring new stuff in every year\u2019<\/p>\n

Opera Tampa\u2019s mainstage season gets underway this Friday with an operatic adaptation of Henry James\u2019 \u201cThe Turn of the Screw.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Three of the four productions are respected but somewhat lesser-known operas based on classic works of literature. Besides \u201cThe Turn of the Screw,\u201d the season includes opera versions of Stephen King\u2019s \u201cThe Shining\u201d and William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cMacbeth.\u201d Mozart\u2019s \u201cThe Magic Flute\u201d is probably the most well-known opera in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will always be performing the top 15 or top 20,\u201d Stamper said. \u201cThose will always be the anchors of our season. But one thing that has been happening consistently, over the past seven years or so, with the exception of one season, is that we\u2019ve been performing something new, something that\u2019s not outside the mainstream but that has never been done in Tampa before. I\u2019m trying to bring new stuff in every year.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Opera Tampa focuses on the supernatural for its 2025-26 season<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t necessarily discernible themes to most Opera Tampa\u2019s seasons, but this year, Stamper said, there\u2019s a deliberate focus on the supernatural.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Turn of the Screw\u201d is a classic Gothic ghost story. \u201cThe Shining,\u201d of course, is the gold standard of 20th-century terror.\u00a0 \u201cMacbeth\u201d is populated by witches and ghosts. And there are otherworldly, if not exactly ghostly, elements in \u201cThe Magic Flute.\u201d\u2028\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But perhaps more significantly, Stamper said, the season spans the history of opera as much as a four-production season can.\u2028 \u00a0 \u201cThe first opera was written in 1597 or something like that,\u201d Stamper said. \u201cSo opera has been spanning a lot of centuries. And this season, one of the things that was also deliberate was that we\u2019re covering four centuries of opera. \u2018Flute,\u2019 18th century, \u2018Macbeth\u2019 19th century, the Britten piece (\u2018The Turn of the Screw\u2019), 20th century, and then \u2018The Shining,\u2019 which of course was written just a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shining\u201d (Jan 30. and Feb. 1) is likely to have the widest appeal, thanks to the novel and the movie, both of which were wildly popular. And it has played to sold-out houses ever since its premiere in Minnesota in 2016.\u2028 But it\u2019s not some low-brow novelty opera that panders to a mass audience. The music comes from Paul Moravec, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer (\u201cTempest Fantasy,\u201d 2004)\u00a0 and the libretto from Mark Campbell, who won a Pulitzer in 2012 for \u201cSilent Night\u201d and a 2019 Grammy in for \u201cThe (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s libretto, Stamper said, stays faithful to King\u2019s novel, which Stanley Kubrick\u2019s film version did not.\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hell of a ride,\u201d <\/a>reviewer Jay Gabler of Minnesota Public Radio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it scary?\u2019 It is. Moravec has created a soundtrack to the chaos within Jack Torrance\u2019s heart, and it\u2019s truly terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin Britten\u2019s \u201cThe Turn of the Screw\u201d probably won\u2019t be as terrifying, and definitely not as violent. But it should be chilling. James\u2019 story, which has become a template for spooky stories ever since, concerns a governess who comes to a house full of ghostly secrets, and encounters progressively creepy behavior from the house\u2019s two young children. (The novella was adapted into a film called \u201cThe Innocents\u201d in 1961.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Magic Flute,\u201d (Feb. 27 and March 1) is Mozart\u2019s most famous opera. It\u2019s also the most famous example of a singspiel, a German form of opera that blends spoken dialogues with songs, arias and choral numbers.<\/p>\n

The season winds up with Giuseppe Verdi\u2019s \u201cMacbeth (April 24 & 26). This is the second time Opera Tampa has produced \u201cMacbeth.\u201d The first production, which came during a spate of below-par seasons before Stamper\u2019s tenure, sold a lot of tickets but disappointed some opera aficionados. This season\u2019s production is completely different and, Stamper said, much improved.<\/p>\n

Opera Tampa\u2019s season actually opened a few weeks back with an odd chamber opera in the Jaeb Theatre. It was the world premiere of a two-in-one opera. The first part was the true story of a Florida who lived for seven years with the rotting corpse of a woman he was in love with. Part two was about Typhoid Mary. But since that was a chamber opera (with limited sets and a small orchestra) it wasn\u2019t part of Opera Tampa\u2019s Mainstage season.\u2028\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

More Tampa Bay opera<\/p>\n

Incidentally, if you\u2019re opera-curious, Opera Tampa isn\u2019t your only local choice. St . Petersburg Opera, now in its 20th season, produces excellent opera and a slightly smaller scale at the Palladium Theater. Next up there is Handel\u2019s \u201cGiulio Cesare\u201d Jan. 30-Feb. 3). And the area\u2019s most venerable opera company, Sarasota Opera, offers \u201cLa Boheme\u201d beginning Feb. 14.<\/p>\n

Tickets to \u201cTurn Of the Screw\u201d showing Nov. 21 & 23 at David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts\u2019 Ferguson Hall are still available and start at $110.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

This article appears in Nov. 20 \u2013 26, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yi Li (L) and Cecilia Violetta L\u00f3pez in Opera Tampa\u2019s \u2018La Boh\u00e8me.\u2019 Credit: OperaTampa \/ Facebook Back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[19975,33898,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-54174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-opera-tampa","9":"tag-robin-stamper","10":"tag-tampa","11":"tag-tampa-headlines","12":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}