Sarasota Opera Winter Opera Festival in February and March, usually offering four fully staged operas with the Sarasota Opera Orchestra. The repertoire includes standard works as well as lesser known operas. In March 2008, the Sarasota Opera House reopened after a $20 million renovation with Verdi's "Rigoletto", and in the same year, the company added its first fully staged fall production, Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" bringing the number of operas presented in a season to five. For the most part, the Fall operas have been popular favourites, but in 2012, it presented Daron Hagen's world premiere opera, "Little Nemo in Slumberland".
Palmo's Opera House the Vicomte de Serval. The company went on to present the first opera by Giuseppe Verdi ever staged in the United States, "I Lombardi alla prima crociata" on March 3, 1847. Other operas staged that year at Palmo's included the New York premiere of "Lucrezia Borgia" and another staging of "The Barber of Seville". Despite making some notable achievements, the Sanquirico-Patti Opera company did not fare well financially against a new opera rival in the city, the touring Havana Opera Company, partly due to the much nicer accommodations and better production value at the Park Theatre where the Havana company