TOSCA: Florida Grand Opera CEO Maria Todaro to Make Stage Directing Debut at Puccini Festival

The Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago will welcome a distinguished guest from across the Atlantic this season: Maria Todaro, CEO and General Director of Florida Grand Opera, one of the oldest and most prestigious performing arts institutions in the United States. Todaro makes her directorial debut on the stage Giacomo Puccini himself called home with Tosca, one of the composer's most dramatic and enduring masterworks.

The appointment carries a resonance that goes beyond artistic merit. Miami and Viareggio share a formal bond as twin cities, a tie rooted in shared values of cultural vitality, coastal spirit and a deep love of the performing arts. For Todaro, this production is not only a personal creative milestone but an opportunity to breathe new life into that bond.

'There is something almost inevitable about this collaboration,' Todaro said. 'Puccini's music has always crossed every border effortlessly. Florida Grand Opera has carried his legacy for generations, and now, to return to the very lake where he composed, and to do so as a director, feels like a homecoming for all of us.'

Maria Todaro belongs to a generation of performing arts leaders reshaping institutions on both sides of the ocean. In the United States, a growing number of artists, including conductors, directors and singers, are stepping into executive roles, bringing creative intuition to institutional leadership and a leader's discipline to the rehearsal room. Todaro embodies this dual identity with rare elegance: a refined stage director whose eye for visual narrative, dramatic architecture and the inner life of a character has been shaped by decades of immersion in the operatic world.

Her production of Tosca at Torre del Lago reflects exactly this sensibility, a reading that honors the grandeur of Puccini's score while finding fresh emotional truth in every scene. The Eternal City of the opera, rendered against the shimmer of Lake Massaciuccoli, becomes in her hands not merely a backdrop but a character in its own right.

The connection between Florida Grand Opera and Italy runs deep. It was on the FGO stage in Miami that Luciano Pavarotti made his U.S. debut in 1965, a historic moment that cemented the company's reputation as a gateway between the great European operatic tradition and American audiences. More than six decades later, that role has not diminished. If anything, it has grown more vital.

In 2024, Florida Grand Opera marked the centenary of Puccini's passing with a season of tributes befitting a composer of his stature. The company's dedication to preserving and celebrating his legacy was recognized at the highest level: FGO received an official award from the Italian government in honor of its extraordinary contribution to the commemoration. It was a moment of deep pride and a confirmation that the transatlantic bond forged through Puccini's music is as strong as ever.

That commitment continued into 2025 and 2026 as Florida Grand Opera mounted a landmark production celebrating the centennial of Turandot, Puccini's final and most monumental opera. The production featured one of the most celebrated casts assembled in recent memory: the legendary tenor Roberto Alagna alongside the radiant soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, a pairing that drew audiences and critical attention from across the country.

The occasion also brought to Miami a remarkable gathering of friends and partners from Italy. The leadership of the Fondazione Festival Pucciniano di Torre del Lago traveled personally to attend: President Fabrizio Miracolo; Artistic Director Angelo Taddeo, who also serves as president of the Accademia Pucciniana; General Director Stefano Coluccini; and Andrea Maionchi, head of marketing and communications. Their presence honored Florida Grand Opera in a gesture that spoke volumes about the depth of this friendship. Joining them was Luigi Viani, a long-cherished friend of FGO and representative of the Puccini Foundation in Lucca, whose presence linked the evening directly to the birthplace of the Puccini legacy.

'To have the Festival and the Foundation in our house, sharing this centennial with us, was one of the most moving experiences of my career,' Todaro said. 'It confirmed what I have always believed: that we are not just colleagues separated by an ocean. We are family.'

Behind every great cultural partnership are the individuals who nurture it with patience, passion and personal commitment. In this story, a special place of honor belongs to Sandra Savini, a Viareggio resident, lover of the arts and former member of the Florida Grand Opera board of directors, and her husband, Roberto Lottini. For years, Sandra and Roberto have served as a living bridge between these two worlds, carrying the spirit of Versilia to Miami and the warmth of FGO back to their home on the Tuscan coast. Their generosity of spirit, their introductions and their tireless belief in the potential of this relationship have been instrumental in making it what it is today.

'Sandra and Roberto understood before anyone else that this friendship had a future,' Todaro said. 'They planted seeds on both sides of the ocean, and what we are celebrating now is, in no small part, their harvest.'

Florida Grand Opera stands as a cultural institution of national importance, with a commitment to world-class production, emerging artist development and a community deeply rooted in the cultural diversity of South Florida. Tosca at Torre del Lago is an expression of that same ambition projected outward, a declaration that the artistic conversation between Italy and the United States is alive, reciprocal and full of possibility.

'Pavarotti came to us in 1965,' Todaro said, 'and Miami gave him his American voice. We have always been a place where great things begin. This production is my way of honoring that tradition and of saying to Viareggio, to Torre del Lago, to all of Versilia: We are your friends, your partners, and we are here.'

Florida Grand Opera looks forward to deepening its ties with the The Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, the Puccini Foundation in Lucca and the cultural institutions of Versilia, in the shared belief that opera, born in Italy and beloved everywhere, is among the most powerful bridges civilization has ever built.

About Florida Grand Opera

Founded in 1941, Florida Grand Opera is one of the oldest and largest opera companies in the southeastern United States. Based in Miami, FGO presents fully staged grand opera productions, world-class artists and robust education programs serving communities across South Florida. www.fgo.org

About The Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago

The Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, held each summer on the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli near Viareggio, is one of Italy's most beloved open-air opera festivals, dedicated to the life and works of Giacomo Puccini. www.puccinifestival.it.

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