Musical theatre responsible for "Les Misérables", which became the longest-running international musical hit in history. The team, in collaboration with Richard Maltby Jr., continued to produce hits, including "Miss Saigon", inspired by the Puccini opera "Madama Butterfly". The British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber saw similar success with "Evita", based on the life of Argentina's Eva Perón; "Cats", derived from the poems of T. S. Eliot (both of which musicals originally starred Elaine Paige); "Starlight Express", performed on roller skates; "The Phantom of the Opera", derived from the Gaston Leroux novel, "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra"; and "Sunset Boulevard" (from the classic film of
Sarasota Opera Petrolini, President of the Club dei 27. Starting this fall, Sarasota Opera will launch a new venture entitled "Sarasota Firsts" in which the company will present operas never previously produced on the Sarasota Opera House stage. For the 2016/2017 season, Sarasota Opera will present three operas in association with this new series which will be "Don Pasquale" by "Gaetano Donizetti", "L'italiana in Algeri" by "Gioachino Rossini", and "Dialogues of the Carmelites" by "Francis Poulenc". The season will also include "Madama Butterfly" by "Giacomo Puccini" and "L'amore dei tre re" by "Italo Montemezzi". The series includes presentations of neglected works of