Once again Sarasota Opera will produce a rarely heard work by a major composer when Joseph Haydn’s Deceit Outwitted (L’infedeltà delusa) opens, the last work in the company’s 2024 Winter Opera Festival. This charming comedy opens March 15, 2024 at 7:30 with four additional performances on March 17, 19, 21, and 23rd. This season’s production is a company premiere and the first fully-staged production by a professional company in the U.S. since 1979. Conductor Anthony Barrese and stage director Marco Nisticò have collaborated on bringing this work to life. Joseph Haydn is one of classical music’s most famous and prolific composers. He is well-known for his symphonies, chamber music, and choral music. Although opera was an important part of his life, almost all of the scores sat in an archive in Hungary until after World War II. Rediscovered in the 1950s, they are occasionally performed in Europe but are rarely heard in the U.S. Deceit Outwitted is a delightful comic opera. Brother and sister Nanni and Vespina (played by company favorites baritone Filippo Fontana and soprano Hanna Brammer) try to outwit her lover, the rich farmer Nencio (returning tenor William Davenport), who has thrown her over to make a more advantageous match with Sandrina (soprano Yulan Piao, in her company debut). Her father Filippo (debuting tenor David Walton) tries to convince her to marry Nencio. Through a series of comic disguises Vespina tricks Nencio into relinquishing Sandrina, who reunites with Nanni. Haydn expert H.C. Robbins Landon has called the score to Deceit Outwitted “the greatest of Haydn’s operatic music.” General Director Richard Russell comments that “I have always admired Haydn’s music in other genre and was delighted to discover his brilliant operatic comedy. Sarasota Opera always includes one rarely heard work in our festival each year and I’m so happy we can introduce our audience to this facet of Haydn’s genius.” Deceit Outwitted joins Bizet’s Carmen, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Verdi’s Luisa Miller as the four works in Sarasota Opera’s world-renowned Winter Opera Festival, which runs through March 24, 2024. Tickets and more information can be found at SaraostaOpera.org or by calling the box office at (941) 328-1300.