New series at Sarasota Opera House offers classic films

You can spend a night at the opera watching “A Night at the Opera.”

The Sarasota Opera House will host a series of classic films, starting Aug. 18 and continuing almost every Friday night through Sept. 22. They’re all phenomenal films, true classics. And they’re ones you seldom get to see on a big screen.

It starts with Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which was filmed largely in Sarasota and had its world premiere at the Florida Theatre, which is now the Sarasota Opera House. Performers from the Circus Arts Conservatory will be on hand, re-creating some of the circus magic that was seen around the theater at the original Sarasota premiere of the film on Jan. 31, 1952.

Here’s the entire schedule: “The Greatest Show on Earth” (Aug. 18), “Singin’ in the Rain” (Aug. 25), “Casablanca” (Sept. 1), “A Night at the Opera” (Sept. 15) and “The Godfather” (Sept. 22).

The films all start at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $10. Call 941-328-1300 or go to sarasotaopera.org.

And speaking of opera ...

Daniel Lipton, the artistic director of Opera Tampa, has resigned. He’s only the second artistic director in the company’s 21-year history. He had been there for five years.

Under his direction, Opera Tampa’s work was spotty but generally very good. Word has it that among performers and designers, he was not as popular as his predecessor, Anton Coppola.

Lipton is 76. He indicated that he does not have any other specific plans, and Opera Tampa has not said anything about who his successor might be.

Opera Tampa still plans to stage its two Figaro operas — Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” — beginning in February. Check strazcenter.org for details.

If opera’s not your cup of musical tea, you might want to support local jazz by attending the 2017 Jazz Club of Sarasota’s Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert on Sunday at Fogartyville.

The featured performers are the Old Souls, a combo of up-and-coming local jazz musicians. All of them have been awarded jazz club scholarships, and some are former members of the popular area youth group Jazz Juvenocracy.

The lineup includes John Medico on drums, Jose Villalpando on bass, Patrick Daut on guitar, Liston Gregory on piano and vocals and Bit Risner on trumpet and vocals. The program including fresh renditions of some of the lesser-known works of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Kurt Weill.

The concert starts at 7 p.m. Sunday at Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center, 525 Kumquat Court, Sarasota. Tickets are $20 advance and $25 at the door. Advance tickets are available at wslr.org.

Over the past 30 years, the Jazz Club of Sarasota’s scholarship program has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to middle school, high school and college jazz musicians from southwest Florida.

This story was originally published July 28, 2017 at 5:28 PM with the headline "New series at Sarasota Opera House offers classic films."