In Tuesday’s (7/7) Naples News (Florida), Harriet Howard Heithaus writes, “Opera Naples, like many first-time homebuyers this year, has taken advantage of the market to snare its own administrative and activities base, a 10,000-square-foot commercial space in East Naples. It’s not the grand-opera performance center the four-year-old company is planning to have eventually, according to Founding Director Steffanie Pearce. … The Opera Naples space will be used for: set and costume construction and storage; rehearsal space with room for as many as 100 musicians and singers; performance of children’s and experimental operas for an audience capacity of 225; educational classrooms; administrative offices. … Opera Naples representatives have talked with the Philharmonic Center for the Arts about staging performances there, but the need for a week’s worth of dedicated rehearsal space was one of several stumbling blocks. Pearce said negotiations with the Phil may be possible now. The opera company, in fact, is now open to performing in a number of venues, added Jerry Goldberg, CEO and vice-chair of the Opera Naples board.” The Naples Philharmonic Orchestra is the primary performance company of the Philharmonic Center for the Arts.
Posted July 10, 2009
