In the current arts and culture grant drought, one Southwest Florida arts organization is enjoying success. Opera Naples has seen a 71 percent increase in ticket sales over the past two years, and a 310 percent jump in corporate sponsorships. Executive Director Melanie Kalnins says one reason is Opera Naples’ board.
“We added five new members to our board of directors … just really terrific people who have deep roots in supporting the arts, but also incredibly impressive professional backgrounds,” Kalnins said. “First and foremost, they provide really honest feedback about how we're being perceived in the community. But they also are able to really draw from their own personal networks to gain support from other people within the community, both financially and in terms of advocacy.”
Opera Naples’ marketing has also helped attract new audiences.
“We've done a lot in terms of more sophistication with our digital marketing. We actually have engaged the help of a marketing firm out of New York. So that's really helped us access a younger demographic.”
Two events in particular kept Opera Naples in the limelight last season – the Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition and its fifth annual Festival Under the Stars.
But ticket sales cover only about a third of an arts organization’s operating expenses. Corporate sponsorships make up a large part of the difference, but donations and grants always play a pivotal role in the financial equation.
For the second year in a row, Opera Naples did not receive any grant money from the state of Florida.
“Grant money has been a big piece of the pie as well, and that has been shrinking,” Kalnins conceded. “So that is an area of vulnerability for us — although we have, as I mentioned, we've seen some growth in some other areas, which does help at least partially offset some of those challenges.”
Melanie Kalnins joined Opera Naples as executive director last August.
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Opera Naples’ fifth annual Festival Under the Stars ran from Feb. 27 through March 15.
Over that span, it staged performances and events in Naples’ Cambier Park and the Wang Opera Center, including fully staged performances of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Puccini’s “La bohème” and Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado.”
The Festival Under the Stars is the only outdoor winter opera festival in the United States.
Individual lead sponsorship gifts were made by Nicky and John Pepe, Sally and Tom Gleason, and Robert and MaryJane Oliveira.
Significant corporate sponsorship was provided by Ice Miller LLP, PNC Private Bank, Starkweather & Shepley Insurance, Heatherwood Construction and Naples Trust.
Generous grant funding support also came from the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau, Florida’s Paradise Coast, Collier Community Foundation and the Florida Theatrical Association.
During its 2024-2025 season, the organization also furthered its collaboration with the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation. That came in the form of the inaugural Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition. Led by Opera Naples Artistic and Music Director Ramón Tebar and Luciano Pavarotti Foundation President Nicoletta Pavarotti, the voice competition was inspired by the famous competitions the legendary tenor held in the 1980s and 1990s in Philadelphia that helped launch the careers of many world-class opera singers.
Opera Naples received over 400 applications for the competition, which was narrowed to 19 contestants who competed over three days in January 2025.
Opera Naples and the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation partnered with the Florida Gulf Coast University Bower School for Music and the Arts, which served as the host for the competition.
Four winners were each awarded a minimum of $10,000 in contracts. They hailed from countries around the globe:
- Luna Park (soprano, South Korea),
- Simona Genga (mezzo-soprano, Canada),
- Minghao Liu (tenor, China) and
- Cumhur Görgün (bass, Turkey).
In partnership with the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation, Opera Naples also brought back its academy in January, during which emerging singers trained with opera luminaries from around the world and presented two performances of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
In the 2024/25 season, the Opera Naples board of directors welcomed an impressive roster of five new members to its ranks: Elizabeth Harrington, Eric Kalnins, Jan Kantor, Kathleen Field Orr and Melody Sawyer Richardson.
Harrington is a retired partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Strategy and China practices and a member of multiple boards of public companies. She is a long-time supporter of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Eric Kalnins is a partner and Naples office founder for the national law firm of Ice Miller LLP. He previously served as a governing member for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Kantor is the founder and owner of the business consulting firm Success Systems. He has a long history of supporting the arts in Southwest Florida and has been instrumental in shaping leadership programs across the area.
Orr is a partner in the law firm of Ottosen DiNolfo Hasenbalg & Castaldo, Ltd., based in Naperville, Illinois. She is a governing member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has served on the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra board of directors for over 40 years.
Richardson is a retired corporate attorney, with a career that extended from Wall Street to New Jersey to Cincinnati. She has served as board chair for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet and the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority.
“These people are true arts lovers, but also come from private professional backgrounds,” Kalnins noted. “They bring a wealth of experience and insight into how we run the company.”
As Opera Naples looks to the 2025-2026 season, the organization also announced the addition of a new staff position: a finance and administration manager. Nora Lastre Broughton was tapped for this position and began her tenure on July 1. Lastre Broughton is an active violinist and has been serving the Southwest Florida Symphony for over nine years, most recently as its chief operating officer. She brings extensive arts administration experience to the organization, particularly in the areas of financial analysis and reporting, budgeting, programming and artistic support.
“I am so grateful to the Opera Naples family and the greater Naples community for believing in our important mission this season,” said Kalnins in the organization’s June press release announcing the results of its previous season. “We have enjoyed growth in so many areas and were overjoyed to invite such an illustrious group of new members to our board of directors. We [were] also thrilled to welcome Nora to join our small but mighty administrative team in July. Her wealth of experience at the Southwest Florida Symphony will serve us well.”
Kalnins did, however, acknowledge the loss of state-level grant funding from its operating budget.
“Even though we saw so many successes this season, we are continuing to address the shortfall from the cuts we saw this year in government funding,” said Kalnins. “Small arts organizations rely on this funding more than others and we are truly grateful for all gifts in support of our important artistic, education and community outreach work.”
In an effort to narrow the funding shortfall, Opera Naples will continue to court younger audiences. Their digital marketing partner, Capacity Interactive, will greatly assist in this endeavor.
Thanks to a survey recently conducted by Opera America, Kalnins is encouraged that younger audiences are increasingly eager to embrace opera experiences. And that’s where programming plays an important role.
“Our maestro, Ramon Tebar, our artistic and music director, has done a really great job in terms of thinking about programming,” Kalnins observed. “He tries to strike a really nice balance between pulling out the great operas, the most popular operas that everyone knows, but also looks to do things that are a little bit more modern-day and aren’t necessarily considered to be opera staples.”
For more, hear/read:
"A major cultural event, Opera Naples Festival Under the Stars a boon to Naples economy";
"Winners of first Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples Voice Competition announced";
"Opera Naples helping new-to-opera attendees get a thrilling experience"; and
"Opera Naples and Luciano Pavarotti Foundation expand collaboration."
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.