ANight
100 SARASOTA SCENE | MARCH 2018
philanthropy
ON THE
BY STEVEN J. SMITH | PHOTO BY NANCY GUTH
they’d like to come — who would
enjoy the opera more if they had
somebody to meet there and
enjoy it with them,” she said. “It’s
nice discussing a certain tenor’s
performance, for example, with
someone else who enjoys opera.”
DiGirolamo added the group
usually meets at 6:15 p.m. in the
Worthington Boardroom on the
House for a pre-performance
reception of drinks, appetizers and
hors d’oeuvres. The gathering also
includes a professional who shares
insights on different aspects of
producing an opera.
“It might be a stage director or a
props manager or a costume person
or a lighting person,” she said.
“Someone from the opera company
who will talk to us for 10-15
minutes and give us a glimpse into
what goes on behind the scenes.
Then we go to the opera and meet
again at intermission. It’s a great
club in which we share our love
of this wonderful art form.”
DiGirolamo grew up in a little
Alabama town called Sulligent,
which she said was not the best
place to learn about opera.
“We did country line dance
music, square dancing and
listened to Elvis Presley,” she said.
“He was from a little town called
Tupelo, Mississippi, which was
about 25-30 miles from Sulligent.
That’s the kind of music I grew up
with.”
However, when DiGirolamo
reached her early 30s, a
friend took her to see Gaetano
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
at the Metropolitan Opera. It had
an immediate impact on her.
“I fell in love with it,” she said.
“It was instant love, an instant
passion for me. I was so totally
“I put my money where my mouth
is as best I can . . . and Sarasota
Opera is worth it.”
- Syble DiGirolamo
Syble DiGirolamo loves opera so
much that she and her husband,
Peter, deliberately chose to retire
to Parrish about 14 years ago —
mainly to be close to Sarasota
Opera.
“Sure, I needed to get out of the
cold weather of New Jersey as
well, but I wasn’t going to move
anywhere that didn’t have a good
opera house,” she said. “Now, my
husband is not quite the opera fan
that I am. I like to go a lot more
than he does and I’ve seen every
opera maybe three or four times.”
That love has led DiGirolamo to
take a vice chairman’s spot on
Sarasota Opera’s board of trustees
and has inspired her to endorse
its T.O.W.N. Club — short for
The Opera Women’s Night Club
— which offers area women
like herself an opportunity to
meet other women interested
in learning about and better
appreciating opera.
“On certain subscription nights
this season, we invite women
ticketholders — and men, too, if
T. O.W. N