Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Praised by Opera Today for “pure, clear tones” and lauded by the Arizona Republic for “purity and vivacious charm,” young soprano Sarah Tucker is demanding attention for her captivating vocal timbre and engaging stage presence. Tucker was a National Semifinalist in the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and recently completed her second year as a member of the Arizona Opera Studio. She was recently heard as Nelly Nettleton in Arizona Opera’s innovative, multi-lingual production of Arizona Lady, in which she not only sang, but also “danced like a flapper” (Opera Today).

The 2019/20 Season included several company debuts: as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Pensacola Opera, Mimi in La bohème with Gulfshore Opera, and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Opera in the Heights. This season, she returns to Gulfshore Opera for a reprise of her Mimi in La bohème.

The 2018/19 Season for Tucker included debuts with The Dallas Opera as Frasquita in Carmen, San Diego Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, and Intermountain Opera Bozeman as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. In the 2017/18 Season, Tucker made her Opera Philadelphia debut where she reprised First Memory in Lembit Beecher’s War Stories, a role which she first premiered with Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City. Additionally, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto with Opera Connecticut and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. The 2016/17 Season brought her debut with Utah Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, her return to Texas State University as a guest soloist in Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and covering the title role in The Golden Cockerel at Santa Fe Opera. Her 2015/16 Season included several more role debuts with Arizona Opera including Micaëla in Carmen, Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni as well as her San Francisco Opera debut as Jano in Jenufa.

Passionate about uncommon works as well as traditional operatic repertoire, Tucker collaborated with conductor Scott Terrell in Lexington Philharmonic’s 2015 Holiday Series, which included the rarely performed “Song of the Angel” by John Tavener. The piece’s haunting duet for soprano and solo violin requires great musical and vocal versatility, which was “stunningly realized by Tucker” (Tedrin Blair Lindsay, Contributing Music Critic, www.kentucky.com). She was also the star of a cutting-edge workshop of composer Clint Borzoni’s The Copper Queen in which she performed the role of Julia Lowell as part of Arizona Opera’s “Arizona Spark” initiative.

Other recent appearances include Norina in Don Pasquale with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with both Lexington Philharmonic and the Christ Cathedral (Crystal Cathedral) in Orange County, CA. Additional past credits include the roles of Contessa Ceprano and Paggio in Rigoletto, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Arizona Opera, for which she received high acclaim. In 2014, Tucker performed Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica and Contessa Ceprano in Rigoletto with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the role of Tina in Flight with Opera Fayetteville.

In addition to her success in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Tucker has received numerous awards in several nationwide vocal competitions. She was a finalist in the Fritz & Levinia Jensen Foundation Voice Competition, in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition she was a finalist and winner of the Encouragement Award, and she competed in the semifinals of the Dallas Opera Guild and Fort Worth Opera McCammon Vocal Competitions. Tucker is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College‐Conservatory of Music (CCM).