I Was Part of the Verdi Cycle

 

Steve Dickman

 

In 2007, I was an usher at Sarasota Opera. I got an email asking for supernumeraries for the upcoming season. I had never been on stage, but decided to try out. I was cast in Attila, and found it to be an incredible, life-altering experience. I was hooked! Since then, I have been a super in I due Foscari and Rigoletto (2008), Don Carlos and La traviata (2009), Giovanna d’Arco (2010), I Lombardi (2011), and Otello and Rigoletto again (2012). The only Verdi Cycle opera I haven’t been in since 2007 is Un giorno di regno (2013), which didn’t use any supers.

 

I haven’t heard about the winter yet, but I hope to be in operas—Verdi and otherwise—at Sarasota Opera for years to come.

 

Thank you to Maestro DeRenzi, Stephanie Sundine, Martha Collins, Richard Russell, and the phenomenal singers and staff at Sarasota Opera for what has been—and continues to be—one of the great experiences of my life.