If you want to stump your most smug opera-nut friends, just ask them to name more than two works by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. If they oblige, chances are their answers won’t include “Le Donne Curiose,” ...

The audience was rolling with laughter during Saturday’s opening night of the Sarasota Opera’s double bill that pairs Gaetano Donizetti’s “Rita” with “Susanna’s Secret” by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. The ...

Wolf-Ferrari’s comic opera La vedova scaltra (The Cunning Widow), is among the works he based on plays by Goldoni. It matches closely the conventions of 18th-century opera buffa in its witty if ...

What is it that the men are doing at their exclusively male club? Enjoying the attentions of beautiful women? Gambling away the family fortunes? Turning lead into gold? A quartet of two wives, a ...

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) was a 20th Century composer with 18th Century ambitions. In most of his 13 operas (best known: The Jewels of the Madonna, Secret of Suzanne), he aimed for classic form ...

The work is the only opera by Wolf-Ferrari, who composed many, that continues to receive performances. This is perhaps understandable, at least in the case of “Susanna’s Secret,” which is light and ...

Opera is about grand gestures, and productions often come with opulent costumes and elaborate sets. You can spend a lot of money putting on an opera. But you don’t have to. The Flatirons Opera Company ...