Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Stage Director Tara Faircloth’s work has been seen in opera houses around the nation. Critics hailed Faircloth's recent directorial debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago: a “wickedly funny, elegantly sung, cleverly directed production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.” In recent seasons, Faircloth created new productions of The Little Prince (Utah Opera), Ariadne auf Naxos (Wolf Trap Opera), Il re pastore (Merola Opera), Agrippina (Ars Lyrica Houston), and The Coronation of Poppea (Boston Baroque).

The 2021/22 Season found Faircloth working on several new productions, including Emmeline with Tulsa Opera, La Traviata at Opera Santa Barbara and The Merry Wives of Windsor with The Juilliard School, as well as a program with Ars Lyrica Houston entitled “Eternity and the Underworld” which paired Jonathan Dove’s The Other Euridice and Bach’s Ich habe genug. In addition, Faircloth revisited her old favorite The Barber of Seville in a debut at The Dallas Opera.

Faircloth has a thriving career in regional houses such as Utah Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Arizona Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Atlanta Opera (The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, The Magic Flute, Hansel and Gretel, etc.). The baroque repertoire is of special interest to Faircloth, who made her directorial debut with Ars Lyrica Houston’s production of Cain: Il primo omicidio in 2003 and has since designed and directed a number of shows for the company including Charpentier’s Actéon and La descente d’Orphée aux enfers. Faircloth created productions of Dido and Aeneas for Ars Lyrica at the Festival di Musica Barroca in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and for Mercury Baroque in collaboration with the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater.

Recent seasons for Faircloth have included new productions of Il re pastore with Merola Opera, Agrippina with Ars Lyrica Houston, The Little Prince with Utah Opera, The Coronation of Poppea with Boston Baroque, Eugene Onegin with Arizona Opera, and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Boston University. Additionally, Faircloth has directed new productions of Madame Butterfly with Wolf Trap Opera, L’enfant et les sortileges with Utah Symphony & Opera, Don Giovanni with Arizona Opera, and a reconfiguration of her 2014 Wolf Trap Carmen for Arizona Opera.

Faircloth has worked extensively on the directing staff of such companies as Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Central City Opera, and Dallas Opera, and as such, has worked on some of the most complicated operas in the repertoire, assisting international directors and preparing cover casts of some of the best performers in our industry. Passionate about dramatic training for young singers, Faircloth is the Drama Instructor for the Houston Grand Opera Studio and HGO's Young Artists’ Vocal Academy and has served as a guest coach at Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Des Moines Metro Opera, University of Michigan, and Rice University. Faircloth splits her time between Austin and Houston, Texas, where she enjoys restoring her 1935 Craftsman Bungalow.