To talk about our region’s growing opera scene without mentioning the soprano who started it all, the pioneering creative behind both Opera Naples and Gulfshore Opera—Steffanie Pearce—would be a big misstep.
In the early 2000s, Steffanie was one of a few dynamic transplants who brought their international experience and New York-honed repertoires to Southwest Florida, fueling some of today’s most popular arts organizations: Kristen Coury’s Gulfshore Playhouse, Karen and Mark Danni’s TheatreZone, and Steffanie Pearce’s first brainchild, Opera Naples. “It’s part of the cultural growth process to go from a vacation-fishing village to a metropolitan area,” she says. “It’s another jewel in the crown for why people would live here.” Before moving to Southwest Florida, Steffanie traveled the world, performing with the historic French company Opéra de Marseille and Opera Philadelphia. She’s belted arias on stage at Carnegie Hall, New York City’s Lincoln Center and at The BuxtonInternational Festival in England.
Though she’s since parted ways with Opera Naples, Steffanie has achieved her goal tenfold, creating a diverse and robust operatic community that spans from Marco Island to Port Charlotte. “We’ve built this network of people across county lines,” Steffanie says. Now, as she celebrates Gulfshore Opera’s 10th anniversary, she’s planning her swan song: to build a community theater space where several performing arts nonprofit groups can collaborate, sharing costs and resources. “A medium-size theater—about half the size of Artis—Naples and Barbara B. Mann, right in between the two—that focuses more on regional production companies, rather than just bringing down the New York shows, is what’s going to make the most impact from this point forward,” Steffanie says. Her sights are set on Estero, the opera troupe’s headquarters town.
Since 2014, Gulfshore Opera has grown to include a flourishing youth Harmony Choir in partnership with local nonprofits such as Youth Haven and after-school programs throughout the tri-county area. She also created the all-female, traveling GO Divas group, with performances at local parks and restaurants to bring opera to new audiences. And, she’s forged collaborations with arts groups, including Marco Island Center for the Arts’ Latin Infusion events and annual concerts with Naples Philharmonic. “My superpower is bringing people together for the greater good,” Steffanie says. “From the beginning of Gulfshore Opera, so many really genuine, goodhearted people came on board and helped to create this very collaborative organization that embraces at-risk kids as much as we do the top 2 percent.”
This season, to mark Gulfshore Opera’s 10th, Steffanie is eager for the return of acclaimed tenor Michael Fabiano (who’s currently in demand at such venues as the Metropolitan Opera), a riveting rendition of Puccini’s classic Turandot and a Beatles-inspired Magical Musical Tour gala at First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs. We call for an encore. —Jaynie Bartley