Fellow Opera Lovers,
Photo by Rob/Harris Productions, Inc.
What a ride we have in store this opera season.
We open with the side-splitting hilarity of Die Fledermaus, where some of
our favorite comic singers will be able to ham it up onstage in outrageous,
Opera Tampa – the world premiere of Anton Coppola’s Lady Swanwhite, a
work near and dear to his heart, and the company debut of The Pearl Fishers,
with its wonderfully exotic music and heart-wrenching tale of love and
honor. The season culminates in La Bohème, an opera I’m sure many
of us can count as our favorite of all time.
We hope you’ve already reserved your tickets for the Opera Tampa
Grand Gala and looked into becoming a member of the
Opera Tampa League.
As always, we extend an earnest hand of gratitude to our
Opera Tampa League and Opera Tampa donors for supporting
the mission of Opera Tampa, especially in raising funds for our
exciting and vital school programs. With these programs,
we’re able to take kid-friendly opera education into the schools
to introduce children to this art form we love so much.
Enjoy the opera season, and I am sure I will see you at these
performances and events.
Sincerely,
Judy Lisi
General Director, Opera Tampa; President and CEO, Straz Center
Judith Lisi is the president of the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts,
which she joined on Oct. 1, 1992. She previously served as Executive Director of the
prestigious hubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven, Conn., where, among her
many achievements, he founded the Shubert Opera Company in collaboration with
the Yale School of Music and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and produced
40 full-scale productions.
In 1995, three years after joining the Straz Center, she founded Opera Tampa and has
produced nearly 50 full-scale productions and presented concerts by such opera luminaries
as Renée Fleming, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Deborah Voight.
Lisi holds a B.A. from Sacred Heart University, an M.A. in theater and communication arts
from St. Louis University, pursued doctoral coursework in theater at the University of
Minnesota and studied opera at The Juilliard School of Music and with the Metropolitan Opera.
In 2008, Lisi received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for the
Performing Arts. In 2012, the Broadway League bestowed the Distinguished Lifetime Service
Award on Lisi for her years of outstanding leadership. In 2013, Lisi was honored with the
Lawrence D. Wasser Humanitarian Award, Tampa Bay Magazine’s Tip of the Hat Award and was
named the 2015 Citizen of the Year by the Economic Club of Tampa. Lisi is the Preserve Vision
Florida, Inc.’s 2018 Person of Vision Award recipient and in April 2018 was inducted into the
Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame.
She is very grateful to the Opera Tampa Board and donors who love opera and are
passionate about supporting this great art form.