Who? Mark Sforzini, 38, is a musician, composer, teacher and conductor. He is artistic director of the St. Petersburg Opera Company and FloriMezzo, a professional and student chamber group.
Sphere of influence: Sforzini, formerly the principal bassoonist with the Florida Orchestra, teaches extensively and is part of the arts renaissance of downtown St. Petersburg, conducting many of his performances in the Palladium Theater. He works as much with professionals as he does with students and youth orchestras.
How he makes a difference: Sforzini is an enthusiastic organizer and advocate for classical music, especially opera. In addition to staging some of the genre's greatest works (including La Bohème and Madama Butterfly), he is working on writing his own opera on a commission from an anonymous benefactor. He is currently rehearsing Mozart's Don Giovanni (June 13, 15 and 17 at the Palladium in St. Petersburg), which he has reset in modern political times, with the Don Juan character transformed into a horny senator.
CL: What is the mood in the arts community these days given all of the funding cuts?
Sforzini: People are looking for ways to partner in the arts community right now. One thing we're doing at the St. Pete Opera Company is partnering with FloriMezzo. … And Studio@620 is helping the opera company out by hosting us for some of our master classes and some of our opera workshopping. We're just trying to collaborate with other arts organizations to reach a common artistic goal.
What effect does the budget crisis in Florida have on your programming?
It depends. There's always the approach that you go out and knock on more doors and raise more funds from individuals and corporate sponsorships, and that can take away from the time you might normally devote to more of the artistic activities in your organization. It can also mean scaling back. Do you do an opera that has nine principals or do you do an opera that has five principals?
Is Tampa Bay supporting the arts the way it should?
If we sold out all three performances of Don Giovanni, we would be in very good shape going forward to the next production. … We did La Boheme last June, and we did three performances. … and we sold out two.
How relevant is opera today?
I do think it is one of the ultimate art forms, because you are taking this great music by some of the greatest composers who ever lived, and you are wedding it to the scenery, the costumes, the lighting, the story, all these elements. But what you ask is the very reason why I wanted to see this Don Giovanni done as a modernized production, because I felt like the original story, which is often set in the 1600s, a lot of it can escape people. And I thought we could increase by tenfold the number of people who came to this opera and really took it all in. It's not that the original is not great; but opera is a living art form, and the stories the composers chose, the stories were vehicles for bringing the great music to people and bringing the characters to people and bringing the drama to people.
And this new production you are conducting is more relevant than a play set in the 1600s?
A lot of the humor when it is updated is more apparent to people. For example, we have cast Don Giovanni. … this archetypal Don Juan figure. … as a womanizing senator. But he's believed to have this impeccable reputation; nobody really knows this other side of his life. And Leporello, who is traditionally the servant of Don Giovanni, now he's the senator's aide. We can all relate to the humor in the situation, we feel like we're slaving away night and day in the office, and [the boss] is out flirting with the women and having a good time, and we want to be the senator and not the senator's aide.
So this is the Eliot Spitzer story?
We're not trying to depict any specific political figure. I guess there would be a disclaimer.
That it's not a partisan thing.
Absolutely not.
But the theme is relevant today in lots of headlines.
And it's fascinating, the other characters, the way they surround Don Giovanni. For instance, the character of Don Ottavio … he's a friend of Don Giovanni, but he's betrothed to Donna Anna. In the update, when Donna Anna comes to him with these accusations of sexual impropriety from Don Giovanni [who denies trying to rape her], he's very troubled. He's a very justice-seeking man, and he's trying to get at the truth between, well, who's telling the truth here, Don Giovanni or Dona Anna? Who's telling the truth: Clarence Thomas or Anita Hill?
The big issue going on downtown now is the $450-million ballpark, and some people might think that a fraction of that money would make a big difference in the arts.
I've been deliberately avoiding the whole ballpark issue. [Laughs.] It's fascinating the amount of money that can be poured into certain sports endeavors is 20 times, 50 times, 100 times what would be needed to really help a lot of arts organizations be sustainable for the future.
It is not widely known that you enjoyed fame a youngster, winning a World Hula Hoop Championship on the Dinah Shore Show in 1979. Is there a Zen of hula hooping?
The lesson of hula hooping is stay loose at the hips and breathe deeply. Stay loose in the hips and breathe deeply always through life.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2008.