Summer Movies At Sarasota Opera House To Begin May 12, 2023

Sarasota Opera has announced the lineup for the 2023 Summer Classic Movies at the Opera House. The Classic Movies at the Opera House series featuring many beloved movies will open on Friday, May 12th at 7:30 pm with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Throughout the summer and into the fall, featured movies will include films ranging from the 1930's to the 1990's. Tickets will be $12 and will go on sale starting on Wednesday, May 3. Additional movie titles are detailed below.

"We are happy to once again present a series of Classic Movies at the Sarasota Opera House this season," said General Director Richard Russell. "The Sarasota Opera House was originally a movie and vaudeville theater, so this is a perfect way to celebrate that tradition. Unfortunately, we are not able to present performing arts films as we have in past years because there is a lack of available content. We will monitor that situation and if performances become available for us to screen, we will add it to our series."

All seats are general admission. Ticket buyers are encouraged to purchase tickets before arriving at the theater. Information and tickets can be found online at SarasotaOpera.org or by calling (941)328-1300. Sarasota Opera subscribers who wish to receive discount Classic Movie tickets must contact the Sarasota Opera box office directly.

Classic Movies at the Opera House (Fridays at 7:30 p.m.)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Friday, May 12, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

When Dr. Dave Bowman and other astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission to Jupiter, their ship's computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behavior, leading up to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, and Leonard Rossiter.

Grease (1978)

Friday, May 26, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

A goody two-shoes from Australia falls in love with a greaser over a summer. When her family moves to the boy's hometown, and she enrolls at the same high school, they have a difficult time maintaining their relationship.

Directed by Randal Kleiser, starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, and Didi Conn.

Auntie Mame (1958)

Friday, June 30, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

This Best Picture nominee is about a young impressionable orphan who receives a dizzyingly wild upbringing from his eccentric aunt who detests nonsense in others but loves it in herself. The script is based on Patrick Dennis' autobiographical novel that also spawned a Broadway hit and was made into movie musical in 1974.

Directed by Morton DaCosta, starring Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne, Fred Clark, Roger Smith and Lindsay Woolsey.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Friday, July 14, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

From the Academy Award-winning Coen Brothers, this hilariously quirky comedy-thriller about bowling, avant-garde art, nihilistic Austrians, and a guy named "The Dude."

Directed by Joel Coen, starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steven Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Peter Stormare, John Turturro, David Huddleston, Sam Elliott, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

You Can't Take It With You (1938)

Friday, July 28, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

This film is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play about an eccentric family of carefree misfits, whose only seemingly normal member, a young lady, falls for her employer's son, the gentlemanly product of stuffy, snobby parents. And when the members of the two disparate clans meet, there are fireworks.

Directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean-Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, and Mischa Auer.

Vertigo (1958)

Friday, August 11, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

Set among San Francisco's renown landmarks, Scottie Ferguson, an acrophobic detective is hired to shadow a friend's suicidal wife, Madeleine. After he saves her from drowning in the bay, Scottie's interest shifts from business to fascination with the icy alluring blonde. When he finds another woman remarkably like his lost love, the now obsessed detective must unravel the secrets of the past to find the key to his future.

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes.

The Great Escape (1963)

Friday, August 25, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

In 1943, the Germans opened Stalag Luft III, a maximum-security prisoner-of-war camp designed to hold even the draftiest escape artists. In doing so, however, the Nazis unwittingly assemble the finest escape team in military history who worked on what became the largest prison breakout ever attempted.

Directed by John Sturges, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn.

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Friday, September 15, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

This Best Picture winner is a portrait of life on a Honolulu Army post just before the attack on Pearl Harbor and focuses on two rebellious privates and a tough but fair-minded sergeant who's swept into a torrid affair with his Commanding Officer's wife.

Directed by Fred Zinnermann, starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, and Donna Reed.

The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)

Friday, September 29, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

This film is a treatise on greed and what gold does to the souls of three miners, circa 1920s, as they set out to find the precious mineral in the mountains of Mexico. Oscars went to John Huston for Screenplay and Direction, and his father, Walter Huston, who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an old prospector.

Directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, Walter Huston, Alfonso Bedoya, and Bruce Bennett.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Friday, October 13, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

This "cartoon noir" follows detective Eddie Valiant as he seeks to clear the name of a toon rabbit framed for murder. A blend of live action, animation and allegory set in 1947 Los Angeles.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer, and Kathleen Turner.

The Addams Family (1991)

Friday, October 27, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

When long-lost Uncle Fester reappears after 25 years in the Bermuda Triangle, Gomez and Morticia plan a celebration to wake the dead. But Wednesday barely has time to warm up her electric chair before Thing points out Fester's uncommonly "normal" behavior. Could this Fester be a fake, part of an evil scheme to raid the Addams fortune?

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Anjelica Huston, Raúl Juliá, Christopher Lloyd, and Dan Hedaya.

NOTE: Additional screenings may be announced at a later date.

Sarasota Opera recently completed its 64th Season of bringing world-class opera to Florida's Gulf Coast. The company was launched in 1960 in the historic 320-seat Asolo Theater on the grounds of Sarasota's Ringling Museum of Art. In 1984 the company moved into the former A.B. Edwards Theater-now the Sarasota Opera House. Since then, the company has gained an international reputation as one of the leading regional opera companies in the U.S. through initiatives such as the Masterworks Revival Series and the Verdi Cycle. The company's Sarasota Youth Opera is the most comprehensive Youth Program in the U.S. The Sarasota Opera House, called "one of America's finest venues for opera" by Musical America, underwent a $20 million renovation in 2007, when the auditorium was named the William E. Schmidt Opera Theatre, in recognition of his leadership gift. Since 1983, the company has been under the artistic leadership of Victor DeRenzi and administrative leadership of General Director Richard Russell since 2012.

Sarasota Opera is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts. Programs are paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues.