FLORENTINE OPERA CO INC
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Mission Statement
Celebrating eighty-five years of artistic and fiscal success, the Florentine Opera Company is driven by its mission to produce the full range of operatic works reflecting the highest musical and theatrical standards and to support community and education programs that foster the current and next generation of opera audiences and practitioners. Our vision is to enrich Milwaukee through great opera, and to achieve local and national recognition for high quality and innovative programs that engage our community.
About This Cause
About the Florentine Opera Company Milwaukee’s Grammy Award winning Florentine Opera Company is the oldest professional performing arts organization in Wisconsin, and the sixth oldest opera company in the United States. Founded in 1933 as The Italian Opera Chorus by John David Anello, the company expanded to produce complete operas in 1950. Mission: Soon to celebrate 85 Seasons of artistic and fiscal success, the Florentine Opera Company is driven by its mission to present the full range of operatic works reflecting the highest musical and theatrical standards and to support community and education programs that foster the current and next generation of opera audiences. Our world-class brand: The Florentine Opera season includes up to ten major productions and over 80 education and outreach programs. More than 45,000 people are served by the Florentine Opera annually, with 85% of our audience coming from the metro Milwaukee area. Other patrons come from the mid-state Fox Valley region, northern Illinois, southeastern Minnesota, and western Michigan. We are constantly striving to create an artistic brand that balances production of the great classics, alongside new and innovative works, as well as opera of the pre-classical and baroque eras. The company now builds more original productions than ever before including: Aida (2006), Don Giovanni (2006), Macbeth (2007), The Magic Flute (2009), Tosca (2009) Rigoletto (2010), Elmer Gantry (2010), Rio de Sangre (2010), Venus & Adonis/Dido & Aeneas (2011); Idomeneo (2012); Albert Herring (2013); Julius Caesar (2014); The Flying Dutchman (2015); Elixir of Love (2015); Three Decembers (2016); and Sister Carrie (2016). More than half of these new productions have received subsequent performances including rentals to Nashville Opera, Opera Cleveland, Vancouver Opera, and Austin Lyric Opera, which helps propel Milwaukee’s creativity onto the national stage. Our Commitment to the Community In 2009, the Florentine Opera Company opened the Wayne and Kristine Lueders Opera Center on Burleigh Street in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. By locating a rehearsal/performance space, and its costume shop in this neighborhood, the Florentine started its commitment to truly be in the community. In 2012, the Florentine also moved its offices to the Riverwest location, sharing the space owned by its board members, Mario and Cathy Costantini of La Lune Collection. In the fall of 2013, the Kate and Don Wilson Casa di Opera opened to house our four Studio Artists in residence with the Florentine Opera Company. This home, refurbished through the hard work and generosity of Mario and Cathy Costantini, along with many other individuals, sits on Weil Street, just next door to the Florentine Opera campus. This location provides the Studio Artists with all of the comforts of home, while giving these early-career artists a solid foundation in the Riverwest Community. Additionally, this affordable housing reduces the housing costs the Florentine previously spent for the program. An increased presence in the community has translated into increased audiences at our free and low-cost performances. For the past four seasons, the Florentine has hosted its @ the Center concert series at its Riverwest Opera Center, featuring fun highlights of operatic repertoire in a relaxed and affordable environment. These shows have become sold-out events, and have brought in many new people who have never been exposed to opera before. The Florentine’s summer performance series has expanded to include a wide array of venues, including Colectivo Coffee Roasters, Estabrook Park Beer Garden and Festa Italiana. Throughout the season, the Florentine remains committed to providing Opera for All! We now reach nearly 50,000 people a year. The Florentine now sees more people in community venues and schools than it does in the Marcus Center during its mainstage productions. Our Unique Training Program The Florentine Opera Company is among an elite handful of opera companies around the country that offers a full-season, young professional training program. With our Studio Artist program, we serve the art form with peers likes the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Fort Worth Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. Our Studio Artist program provides a crucial bridge from advanced conservatory or university training to professional careers, especially when you consider that the human voice continues to develop and mature well into early adulthood. We audition nearly two hundred talented singers each season and select the top four—a soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone—for a nine-month season of training, performances, and service to the community. Three years ago, we opened the Kate and Don Wilson Casa di Opera, the residential home right next to our Opera Center, where our young artists now live. This puts them right in the center of our artistic campus and business model, with easy access to rehearsals, practice sessions, and coaching. Their proximity also makes them available for a remarkable number of community performances. The rigor and pace of our Studio Artist program is also unparalleled. Our young artists learn and perform a truly amazing range of repertoire. They become our year-round artistic face, and allow us to serve nearly 50,000 people each season, from all ages and walks of life. The Studio Artist program: o Provides crucial training for the next generation of American opera stars o Adds to the Florentine’s artistry. Our Studio Artists perform mainstage roles alongside national and international stars. o Shares great opera with neighborhood audiences. Our Studio Artists are the featured performers in our @ the Center Series, and perform dozens of concerts each year at area music festivals, senior homes, neighborhood centers, and more o Inspires young audiences! Our Studio Artists are the stars in our Opera in the Schools touring program and introduce more than 20,000 students to world-class opera every year. The Florentine Opera celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Studio Artist program in 2017-18. In honor of this milestone, Donald & Donna Baumgartner made an endowment gift of $1.5 million to assure this vital program’s future and naming the Donna and Donald Baumgartner Studio Artist Program. Our Funding Sources While the Florentine Opera Company performs high-quality productions each season, only a small portion of our income comes from ticket revenue. Only twenty percent of the Florentine Opera’s revenue comes from ticket sales, and other earned income, such as renting out our original productions across the country. Additionally, only twenty percent of our funding comes from corporations, government entities like the National Endowment for the Arts or Wisconsin Arts Board, and private foundations combined. The remaining 60 percent of income is brought in through the generous donations of individuals during our annual fundraising campaigns. Opera remains one of the most challenging and expensive professional art forms to produce, because it marries the elements of world-class singing with the additional theatrical costs of sets, props, costumes, and a full orchestra. We are fortunate that Milwaukee celebrates great opera as one of this community’s premiere and unique cultural assets.