"You don’t put somebody on Hades 360. That would be like taking them to ‘Der Rosenkavalier,’ a three-hour Strauss opera."

It may seem absurd that the Juilliard-trained pianist who conducts Opera Tampa shows is also an off-the-charts thrill seeker of theme park roller coasters, but strap in for this ride. He can show you a connection.

Robin Stamper is the artistic director and chorus master for Opera Tampa, the resident opera company for the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. He’s a detail-oriented musician who has played Chopin and Liszt for Leonard Bernstein.

But off the clock, he’s an adrenaline junkie who is closing in on a goal of 400 trips on roller coasters around the country.

Talk to Stamper long enough and he just might convince you that Verdi’s twisted love story “La Traviata,” which he is conducting this month at the Straz Center, and that weightless feeling you get on a coaster’s free fall moment have a lot in common. They both take some getting used to and are worth the effort.

Read more at the Tampa Bay Times