Co-Producer Society Double Co-Producer
Alvan Balent, M.D. and Linda Civerchia Balent, M.D.
Don Giovanni and
Distinguished eye surgeons, now retired,
Drs. Alvan and Linda have been Florida
Grand Opera season ticket holders since the
War Memorial days in 1983. They support
and appreciate not only FGO but many other
organizations that make our South Florida
community so exciting and diverse.
Dr. Alvan Balent graduated from Washington &
and interned at Brooke Army Hospital, Fort Sam
serving in Japan and Korea. After a year of
general surgery at the University of Miami, Coral
Gables VA (now the Biltmore Hotel) and a year
of general practice in Miami, he did a residency
in ophthalmology at the Pittsburgh Eye and Ear
Hospital. He opened his medical practice in Fort
Lauderdale in 1964. Dr. Balent was a pioneer
of intraocular lens implants, now a routine and
integral part of eye surgery.
Dr. Linda Civerchia Balent is a graduate of Vassar
College, receiving both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry in four years. She received her MD from Albany
Medical College where she was elected to the medical honor society (Alpha Omega Alpha). After her internship at
Harvard and ophthalmology residency at Boston University, Dr. Balent relocated to Fort Lauderdale in 1982, becoming
They were invited repeatedly to teach modern sutureless cataract surgery at Aravind Eye Care Systems, which has
become the largest eye hospital in the world. Their 2003 trip included surgery in Cambodia and in 2006, surgery and
teaching in Tibet. Dr. Linda has received the Humanitarian Award from the Albany Medical College Alumni Association,
and both doctors received the Chairman’s Recognition Award from the Florida Board of Medicine as “exemplary Florida
licensed medical physicians, for outstanding contributions to the medical profession and a decade of providing medical
care and medical training to the underserved.”
The doctors have been honored as Diva and Impresario by the Opera Society. Dr. Linda is a past president of the Opera
Society (2005–2007) and currently serves as a board member of the Opera Society and FGO. She represented the
Opera Society at the 1000+ Club of the American Cancer Society Women of the Year 2005 and was named a Woman
of Style and Substance by the Florida Philharmonic Society. She served as president of the Friends of NSU Art Museum
The Balents have two sons: Alvan, Jr., a graduate of Vassar College and FSU College of Law, who serves as a general
magistrate in the probate division of Florida’s 11th Circuit court, and Zack, a graduate of West Point and recently of MIT,
who has accepted a management position with Amazon.
22 | FLORIDA GRAND OPERA
season