Timeline Post Type Description
2025 saw continued artistic and organizational growth. Nearly the entire staff was revitalized, bringing new energy and expertise across departments Carmen, directed by Todaro and starring the Costa-Jackson sisters, earned critical acclaim Education programs expanded, reaching more students than ever A new in-house orchestra was formed and Music Director, Pablo Mielgo joins FGO solidifying FGO’s…
FGO launched a bold new chapter in 2024 under the leadership of General Director & CEO Maria Todaro and Board Chair Tina Vidal-Duart. Announced in The Miami Times as “Not Your Grandmother’s Opera,” Todaro’s appointment marked a cultural shift—and her debut season delivered. The company opened with a visually stunning, South Florida–made production of The…
Robert Herman appoints Miamian conductor Willie Anthony Waters as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. Lawrence Budmen writes in the South Florida Classical Review, “Waters led an intense reading of Mozart’s opera seria Idomeneo, a sizzling Salome (Miami’s first Strauss opera), and a lyrical Die Walkure (with James Morris as Wotan).”
After 11 years of leadership, Susan T. Danis steps down as General Director and CEO. The Board of Directors appoints Maria Todaro as Interim General Director just in time for the season opener, La traviata. Against all odds, the production is a commercial success under Todaro’s leadership.
FGO commissions a Spanish translation of Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto and presents the piece as a celebration of Cuban Americans in 1980s Miami.
FGO’s historic 80th season includes a 20th century work (André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire), a 21st century work, (Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers), a classic Verdi opera (Rigoletto), and an innovative production of a baroque opera (Handel’s Agrippina). The season includes four different theaters for the mainstage operas and over 80 events.
As COVID-19 rages on, FGO pivots to launch a winter season of four 20th- and 21st-century American composers in alternative venues, and an array of concerts and events designed to engage South Florida’s diverse communities amid the global pandemic.
Four female directors are scheduled to make their FGO debuts, each telling the stories of the season’s operas from a woman’s perspective. Fall events are sold out. The COVID-19 pandemic strikes mid-season, forcing the cancellation of the final two productions.
Florida Grand Opera takes Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s Frida on a regional tour, making house debuts at the Miramar Cultural Center and Parker Playhouse, and returning to the Miami-Dade County Auditorium for the first time in over 12 years.
Florida Grand Opera is nominated as a finalist in the 2018 International Opera Awards for its outstanding achievements in the field of Education and Outreach.