Michael Hendrick Joins Sarasota Opera's OF MICE AND MEN

Executive Director Richard Russell and Artistic Director Victor DeRenzi have announced that tenor Michael Hendrick will be returning to Sarasota Opera this season to sing the role of Lennie Small in Sarasota Opera's 2013 production of Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men opening Saturday March 9th. Corey Bix, who was originally scheduled to sing the role, has withdrawn from the production.

Mr. Hendrick has performed with leading opera companies and orchestras in Europe and in North America. He made his debut with Sarasota Opera in 1996 as Trabucco in La forza del destino and Tinca in Il tabarro, and returned in subsequent seasons to sing Guillot in Manon, Laca in Jenufa, and Levko in the American stage premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night. Mr. Hendrick made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 singing the role of Meneas in Strauss' Die aegyptische Helena and has since returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos. Mr. Hendrick has earned critical praise for his performances in the title role of Parsifal with Lyric Opera of Chicago; as Lennie Small in Carlisle Floyd'sOf Mice and Men with both the Washington National Opera and Kentucky Opera; as Don José in Carmen (LIV Festival Ópera de A Coruña, Palacio de Festivales in Santander, New York City Opera, and Opera Pacific); as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Pittsburgh Opera, L'Opera de Montréal, and Seattle Opera; and as Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia with New York City Opera. Mr. Hendrick has appeared at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw as Midas in Strauss' Die Liebe der Danae with Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, and at Washington's Kennedy Center in the title role of La clemenza di Tito with the National Symphony Orchestra.

"We are happy to welcome Michael back to Sarasota Opera," says Maestro DeRenzi. "We are grateful he was able to adjust his schedule so he could be part of this production."

Of Mice and Men

A continuation of the American Classics Series, Sarasota Opera will present Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men. Premiered in 1970 at Seattle Opera, Mr. Floyd adapted the opera from the novella and play by John Steinbeck and wrote both the music and libretto himself. The opera stays faithful to Steinbeck's story of two depression era workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, struggling for work as they pursue their own American dream of buying a own farm one day. However, when a hard and cruel world forces them down a different path, George and Lennie are forced to say goodbye to the bright horizon they had envisioned for themselves.

Sarasota Opera's production of Of Mice and Men will run for six performances from March 9^th through March 23^rd. Tickets can be purchased atwww.sarasotaopera.org or by calling the box office at (941) 328-1300.