Bold. Brave. Brilliant.

About Arizona Opera

Originally the Tucson Opera Company founded 1971

Arizona Opera, originally the Tucson Opera Company, was founded in 1971 by a dedicated group of opera enthusiasts. Its inaugural season featured two performances of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in Tucson and by the 1976 – 1977 season Arizona Opera was performing complete seasons in both Tucson and Phoenix.

Arizona Opera produces fully-staged operas, concerts, and collaborative programs throughout the state of Arizona each year, and is among only a handful of companies in the U.S. that regularly performs in more than one city. Having just celebrated its 50th Anniversary Season, Arizona Opera mission is to elevate the transformative power of storytelling through music, cultivating community and strengthening a state and people as adventurous and diverse as the place they call home. Since its inaugural year in 1971, Arizona Opera has produced more than 200 operas and concerts. The company's artistic history is rich with a blend of opera’s traditional repertoire featuring baroque, bel canto, and verismo works, turn-of-the-century masterpieces, operettas, and contemporary American operas.

 

Our Mission

Arizona Opera elevates the transformative power of storytelling through music—cultivating community and strengthening a state and people as adventurous and diverse as the place they call home.

 

Our Vision

To be an industry leader in artistic vitality, delivery of civic value, audience expansion, and institutional strength and sustainability.