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".
Opera Lyra Ottawa first fully staged opera, "Così fan tutte", performed in the Alumni Theatre at Carleton University. In 1986, the company moved into the National Arts Center's 897 seat Theatre, with a production of "The Barber of Seville". 1987 was Gilchrist's fourth year as Artistic Director and her final opera at the NAC was "The Elixir of Love", conducted by Dwight Bennett. Jeannette Aster became Artistic Director in 1987 when Gilchrist moved to Europe for professional engagements singing Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta and other coloratura roles. The 1990 production of "Madama Butterfly" marked the first time the company performed an opera