Opera at St Mark’s

I came across this gem when I was searching for night-​time activities in Florence, Italy.
Other places have given this opera performance extremely high praise and I thought «once in a lifetime» I have to at least try Italian Opera, despite being a total newbie, and basically knowing nothing of the subject, except for occasionally overhearing the Pavarotti & 4-​tenors songs my late father used to love.
Reservations were done over email and the organizer was very prompt in answering all my questions.
This is a very small scale opera which only has a cast of less than 10, takes place in a small Anglican church, and whose proceeds go to charity to help African kids. Dress is casual. What is surprising is the high quality of the production — apparently they use local professionals who volunteer for these performances. The venue, being a church, has pretty good acoustics, and the place is small, cozy, and the performance is right in-​your-​face (in a good way). It is all geared towards english-​speakers, so you do not need any knowledge of italian. After every quarter, the organizer Franz, will come to the stage and explain in plain english what just happened and give a vague idea of that will be happening in the next act. There are also paper english guides which give a brief synopsis of the story.
The rainy weekday performance drew a crowd of about fifteen, although there were a number of no-​shows too. Even then, a full crowd couldn’t have numbered over 35. For such a small, almost personal performance, the low price was definitely worth it.
I think if you are looking for something more unique and you want to learn about the local culture this is definitely a nice easy way to do so, and without all the stresses of figuring everything out in a foreign language. I highly recommend!