The Magic Flute

Emanuel Schikaneder, pseudonym of Johann Joseph Schikaneder, (1751—1812), was a prominent German actor, singer, playwright, and theatre manager now chiefly remembered as the librettist of Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).

Schikaneder began his career as an actor with a small traveling company performing the improvised farce and song then popular, but by age 22 he had written and starred in his first operetta. Five years later he was the manager of his own company. His repertoire included plays by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, J.W. von Goethe, and Pedro Calderón. His Shakespearean roles, especially, were widely admired, and he was particularly notable as Hamlet. The company also performed farces and Singspiele (operettas), and Schikaneder’s growing interest in the musical theatre led in 1780 to his acquaintance with the Mozart family.

By 1784 the Schikaneder company had received the favorable notice of the emperor, Joseph II, and had settled in Vienna. There Schikaneder turned his attention to opera, commissioning from contemporary composers the musical scores to fit his own libretti. His libretto for The Magic Flute, set to music by his friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and his superb performance in the role of Papageno at the premiere in 1791 raised him to the peak of his popularity. His productions grew increasingly sumptuous, and by the time he opened the Theater an der Wien (1801), built especially for him, the costs were becoming ruinous. Schikaneder retained management of the theatre for less than four years, a period marked by an abortive attempt at collaboration on an opera with Ludwig van Beethoven. Schikaneder left Vienna to manage theatres in Brno and Pest, but he eventually returned to the Austrian capital, where he died impoverished and insane.

Praised for his “healthy and soaring tenor voice” (The Herald Times), Korean American Brad Bickhardt is a vibrant and versatile performer in both the operatic and musical theatre canon. Highlight performances have included Nemorino (The Elixir of Love), Tony (West Side Story), and Alfredo (La Traviata), as well as originating the role of Colin in We Wear the Sea Like a Coat. Additional 2021/22 appearances have included filming Stone Soup for Tri-Cities Opera, appearing in recital with Chelsea Opera and Maryland Opera, and as a guest artist at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. Bickhardt has previously appeared with Opera Saratoga in their critically acclaimed production of Man of La Mancha under the baton of Broadway conductor, Laura Bergquist, as well as in Opera Naples’ productions of West Side Story and La Traviata.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bickhardt was on the roster of The Glimmerglass Festival in productions of Wagner’s Die Feen as well as The Sound of Music, and in 2019, was a member of the prestigious Wolf Trap Opera Studio in which he covered and performed principal roles in L’heure espagnole, Lîle de Merlin, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and Ariadne auf Naxos. On the concert stage, he has appeared as the tenor soloist in Schubert’s Mass in G, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and Mozart’s Miss Brevis in Bb.

Bickhardt received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Vocal Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he appeared in 13 productions with IU Opera Theater as well as serving as an Associate Instructor of Voice. Bickhardt's graduate thesis consisted of compiling an anthology of musical theatre repertoire for undergraduate tenors and their pedagogical applications, and he was named an Encouragement Award from the Central Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council. Bickhardt is a proud alumnus of the rosters of Tri-Cities Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Naples, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Charlottesville Opera. Bickhardt's primary vocal instruction has been under renowned baritone Andreas Poulimenos and husband and wife team Kevin and Heidi Grant Murphy.

Praised for her "expressive, lovingly shaded soprano" and "dazzling coloratura and lithe stage presence [used] to piquant comedic effect" (Opera News), French-American soprano Véronique Filloux spends the 2022/23 Season with Arizona Opera, making several exciting role debuts including Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Liesl (The Sound of Music), Pamina (The Magic Flute), and Agatha (Frankenstein - workshop). Filloux also joins Washington Concert Opera as Miss Ellen (Lakmé) and Pacific Opera Project as Martesia in the US premiere of Vivaldi's Ercole su'l Termodonte. Filloux is delighted to spend her summer with Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist, singing Iris (Semele), singing on Steve Blier's recital "Night and Day, USA," and giving a Parlor Recital. In the 2023/24 Season, Filloux looks forward to debuts with companies including Berkshire Opera Festival as Musetta (La Bohème) and Livermore Valley Opera as Curley’s Wife (Of Mice and Men), as well as two returns to Arizona Opera as Rosina (The Barber of Seville) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni).

Filloux has spent the past two summers with Des Moines Metro Opera, singing Peaseblossom/Tytania (cover) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and L'Amour/La Folie (cover) in Rameau's Platée. As a Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 Seasons, her roles included Papagena (The Magic Flute), The Girl/Luna (The Rose Elf, staged premiere), Frasquita (Carmen), Despina (Così fan tutte), Chan Parker (Charlie Parker’s Yardbird), and the title role in Handel’s Semele. Filloux also performed recitals with Salt Marsh Opera and Musicians Club of Women and was scheduled to debut with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Mass in C.

Active in competition, Filloux has won 1st Place in the 2022 Zenith Opera Competition, the 2023 Dorothy Lincoln-Smith Competition- Arizona, the 2022 Mildred Miller Vocal Competition, and the 2021 Camille Coloratura Awards. Filloux is a prize winner in the 2022 Young Patronesses of the Opera Competition, 2023 Dorothy Lincoln-Smith Competition- National Finals, 2022 Annapolis Opera Competition, 2021 Orpheus Vocal Competition 2021 Dorothy Lincoln-Smith Competition- DC, and the 2020 Musicians Club of Women Competition, as well as a Pittsburgh District Winner of the 2020 Laffont Competition.

In past seasons, Filloux has been proud to work with opera companies including Opera Lafayette, Chicago Opera Theater, Salt Marsh Opera, Opera NEO, and Central City Opera, with whom she spent two summers, singing Papagena (The Magic Flute) and the title role in Debussy’s La damoiselle élue, earning the 2019 Opera Guild Artist Sponsorship and winning both the company’s Young Artist Award and Apprentice Artist Award. Filloux made her Kennedy Center debut as Tigrane (Radamisto) with Opera Lafayette. On the concert stage, Filloux has performed solos in Carmina Burana, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Messiah, and several Bach cantatas with organizations including the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Bach Collegium San Diego, Maryland Bach Cantata Project, and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, with whom she has enjoyed several collaborations. Filloux is a proud graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Maryland Opera Studio.

Emily Misch has been praised by Opera News for her "stratospheric coloratura with scintillating precision" while the Times Argus has called her soprano voice “brilliant and virtuosic.” In 2021 Misch returned to the Glimmerglass Festival to sing in The Magic Flute; The New York Times called her performance “impressive” and “fearsome,” and The Wall Street Journal said her “capable, bright-voice...ably navigated the Queen of the Night’s coloratura.” While there, she also performed the role of Berginella in Songbird, a new adaptation of Offenbach’s La Périchole created by Eric Sean Fogel, James Lowe and Kelley Rourke. Other performances in the 2021-22 season have included Madame Goldentrill in The Impresario with Syracuse Opera and Handel’s Messiah with Naples Philharmonic. She also performs as a soloist in Berg’s Wozzeck with Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In 2020, Misch “unleashed sparkling coloratura while displaying complete command of her voice every second she was singing as Madame Zamira” (Parterre Box) in American Lyric Theater's workshop of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant. Prior to the pandemic, Misch had been scheduled to sing Lora in Die Feen with the Glimmerglass Festival and Lucy in Menotti's The Telephone at the Newport Music Festival, the soprano solos in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (Altoona Symphony Orchestra) and Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Mass in F Major (Berkshire Choral International), and to appear in concert with the Mirror Visions Ensemble.

Misch made her Glimmerglass Festival debut in 2019 as Florestine in The Ghosts of Versailles, a role she reprised with Château de Versailles Spectacles in France for her European debut. Other recent roles include Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg with Opera North; Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera in Williamsburg; Le feu, La princesse and Le rossignol in L'enfant et les sortilèges with Opera on the Avalon; and Leah in Joel Mandelbaum's The Dybbuk at Queens College. During her graduate studies at Mannes College of Music, she was heard as the Controller in the New York premiere of Jonathan Dove's Flight and as Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia.

On the concert stage, Misch has performed as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Paukenmesse with Huntington Choral Society, in Carmina Burana with the Altoona Symphony Orchestra and the Westchester Choral Society, in Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (Mater Gloriosa) with Berkshire Choral International, and in Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165 with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.

A 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions National Finalist, Misch has also been awarded prizes from the Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, Mannes College, and Yale University. She has been a vocal fellow at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Music Institute and has participated in young artist training programs at Wolf Trap Opera Company, Sarasota Opera, Opera North (NH), and Opera on the Avalon. She received a BA in Music from Yale University, where she graduated magna cum laude.

Schyler Vargas, Mexican-American baritone, is establishing himself as a versatile young talent, bringing interdisciplinary performances to the operatic, theatrical, and concert stage. Noted as a “distinguished” (Washington Classical Review) and “powerful baritone,” (Washington Post), Vargas' recent work in the new dramatic song cycle UNKNOWN by Shawn Okpebholo and commissioned by UrbanArias has been featured on PBS News Hour and NPR, among other publications.

In 2021, Vargas made his Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Opera Edwardsville debut as Marco in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and a baritone soloist, respectively. Previously, Vargas has been seen in main stage roles at The Atlanta Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Glimmerglass Opera Festival, Dayton Opera, and the Château de Versailles Spectacles in France. Vargas’ notable roles include: Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro by W. A. Mozart, Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus by Richard Strauss, Maximilian in Candide, and Riff, Diesel, and Chino in West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein with original Jerome Robbins choreography, and Frank Schultz in Show Boat by Jerome Kern, among others. On the concert stage, Vargas has performed as the baritone soloist for Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Schubert’s Mass in Ab, and Mark Hayes’ Requiem.

An award winning performer, Vargas has seen success in competitions with notable awards including: 1st place in Tri-Cities Opera’s first Virtual Vocal Competition, Rocky Mountain District Winner in The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 2nd place and Audience Favorite in the Harold Haugh Light Opera Competition, and 2nd place at the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Aria Competition, and District Winner in the Dorothy Lincoln-Smith Voice Competition.

Prioritizing new music in his career, Vargas has worked with Cincinnati Opera’s Opera Fusion, workshopping new operas including Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian and Tobias Picker’s Awakenings. At The Glimmerglass Festival, Vargas sang the title role of Nicholas Benavides’ Gilberto and while at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, he had the opportunity to take part in the New Works Bold Voices Lab which presented three world premieres.

Vargas received his Master of Music degree from the renowned University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of William McGraw and his Bachelor of Music with a minor in Business Administration from Colorado State University.

Praised for her captivating stage presence, “full bodied" (Indie Opera) and "nuanced voice” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), mezzo-soprano Lauren Cook is quickly establishing a name for herself in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Mazzoli. During the 2021 Season, Cook made her company debuts with Painted Sky Opera performing Hannah After in the Oklahoma Premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s As One, Opera Saratoga performing Antonia in Man of La Mancha, and Virginia Opera performing Wellgunde in Das Rheingold. Cook was most recently seen performing Edwin the Avatar/Eddie in the film version of Frances Pollock’s Earth to Kenzie.

Other notable stage credits include Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Scalia-Ginsburg), Blanche de la Force (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Mélisande (Impressions de Pelléas), and Tisbe (La Cenerentola). Cook has appeared with Opera Philadelphia, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Naples, Opera Iowa, Opera Company of Middlebury, Opera Louisiane, Guérilla Opera, Odyssey Opera, Seagle Festival, and the Louisiana Opera Outreach Program, and has performed as a soloist in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Cook was also a featured soloist in Boston Symphony Hall at a gala hosted by Alan Cumming.

As a contemporary repertoire advocate, Cook premiered Evan Mack's Roscoe, and was most recently seen workshopping the role of LeAnn in Missy Mazzoli's upcoming opera: The Listeners, with Opera Philadelphia. Cook was also featured in a collaborative project with Guerilla Opera, where she premiered excerpts from The Desert, Lazy Citizen, War is a Racket, and Malice in the Palace. Other notable projects include the workshop and premiere recording of The Leopard (Dellaira) as the role of Angelica with American Opera Projects, the premiere recording of The Wake World (Hertzberg) with Opera Philadelphia, a recording of Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Wuorinen) with Boston Modern Orchestra Projects, and a pre-workshop of Permadeath (Visconti) as Aphrodite in association with Friends of Madame White Snake. Prior to the pandemic, Cook was also scheduled to perform Elder #2 in the New York Premiere of Lembit Beecher’s Sky on Swings with Opera Saratoga.

Cook will close out 2021 with the World Premiere of Molly Joyce’s Our Way of Being Small in the World with Fresh Squeezed Opera in NYC, followed by a recording with Opera Philadelphia of Daniel Belquer’s piece Religare Resonare, composed specifically for use with Vibrotextile wearable technology by Music: Not Impossible Labs. In the 2022 Season, Cook returned to Virginia Opera to perform Cherubino in their mainstage production of The Marriage of Figaro.

Known for his “agile character tenor” and “over-the-top committed” portrayals, tenor Dylan Anthony Morrongiello is an emerging force in the highly sought-after supporting repertoire of the operatic canon. During the 2021/22 Season, Morrongiello will join the roster of the Lyric Opera of Chicago covering Monostatos in The Magic Flute, and the Metropolitan Opera making his debut singing the Dean in Cinderella and covering Don Curzio and Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Player 2 in Brett Dean’s Hamlet, and Sellem in The Rake’s Progress.

Morrongiello’s recent scheduled engagements included his debut with the prestigious Opera Theater of Saint Louis, where he was scheduled to perform the role of Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus (COVID-19) and cover the roles of Elder Hayes and Little Bat in Carlyle Floyd’s Susannah (COVID19). In the 2019/20 Season, he made his debut in the roles of St. Brioche in The Merry Widow and Borsa in Rigoletto with St. Petersburg Opera, made a company debut with Cincinnati Song Initiative, performing songs of John Musto at Ithaca College, and was scheduled to make his role and company debut at First Coast Opera, singing various roles in The Little Prince (COVID-19). In the summer of 2021, Mr. Morrongiello returned to St. Petersburg Opera as Beppe in Pagliacci.

In the summer of 2019, Morrongiello made his company debut as an apprentice artist with Central City Opera, where he made his role debut as Goro in Madama Butterfly at the Odescalchi Kelly Family Matinee and covered Red Whiskers in Billy Budd. Having recently completed a residency in the Florida Grand Opera studio, Morrongiello performed Don Basilio/Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro and Mr. Ford in Frida on the FGO main stage. While in Miami, Morrongiello also frequently performed in local concerts and as part of the SongFest recital series. Other recent credits include Il Podestà in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, the Jazz Trio in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti with the Shepherd School Opera, and a return to the Glimmerglass Festival to perform the combined roles of the Schoolmaster and the Mosquito in a new English-language production of Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and covering the role of the Kronprinz in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night.

In 2017, Morrongiello made his debut as a young artist at The Glimmerglass Festival where he performed the role of Ali Hakim in Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and sang in numerous concert and ancillary events, including a special appearance with Stephen Schwartz. The contract also included covering the role of Edmondo in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais. Morrongiello has also made repeat engagements with Opera Saratoga as a young artist, appearing as Don Curzio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and covering roles in Daniel Catan’s Il Postino and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

In concert, Morrongiello was recently featured as tenor soloist in Bach’s St. John’s Passion and Magnificat with the Bach Society Houston, Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion with the Rice University Chorale, under the direction of Thomas I. Jaber, and in a coproduction with Da Camera of Houston and the Moody Center for the Arts of Sarah Rothenberg’s multimedia production “A Proust Sonata.”

A skilled musician and sought after for new works, Morrongiello has frequently been enlisted by modern auteurs to premier their compositions. Most recently, Morrongiello created the role of The Voice He in Franklin Piland’s Rose Made Man, an opera focusing on transgender issues, in collaboration with the Cohen New Works Festival at the University of Texas at Austin School of Theatre and Dance. Also, while at the University of Texas at Austin, Dylan appeared in the orchestral premiere of David Hanlon’s Past the Checkpoints, a piece telling the stories of undocumented immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley.

An avid supporter of the art song repertory, Morrongiello is a seasoned recitalist and interpreter of American art song. An alumni of the SongFest Institute in Los Angeles, California, Morrongiello was the recipient of a Schubert Fellowship to study and perform art song repertoire. With this honor came the privilege of performing numerous public master classes and concerts, including a special program celebrating the songs and poetry of California, featuring poet laureate and former NEA chairman Dana Gioia.

Morrongiello is a past winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Houston district, and an Encouragement Award winner in the Gulf Coast Region. Morrongiello holds a Masters of Voice from the prestigious Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he was a recipient of the Elva Kalb Dumas Prize in Music, and holds a Bachelors from the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music.

Praised as a, “Shining and Powerful Bass-Baritone” (Opera Today), Peter Morgan has quickly developed a reputation as an enthralling and dynamic performer, amassing a steadily increasing repertoire performing across the United States and Europe. Signature roles include; Leporello in Don Giovanni, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, and Colline in La bohéme. Morgan has also made a name for himself as an interpreter of new music, with several premieres to his name including; Jason and the Argonauts by Gregory Spears with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Scorpions’ Sting by Dean Burry also with The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lunch Encounter 1929 by Patrice Michaels with The Glimmerglass Festival, as well as the recent landmark production of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles with L’Opéra Royal de Versailles which is available now available on the Medici TV streaming app.

In the fall of 2020 Morgan had the pleasure of performing Der Tod in Der Kaiser von Atlantis with Rice University in the very first opera filmed using Chromadepth-3D technology. Morgan is thrilled to be making his house debut with Arizona Opera. Following the filming of The Copper Queen, Morgan will be returning to The Glimmerglass Festival where he will be singing Don Pedro Hinyosa in La Perichole, and covering the legendary Eric Owens as Ferrando in Il Trovatore.

Morgan is currently the Brockman Endowed Scholarship in Voice recipient and Artist Diploma in Opera Studies Fellow at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas where he studies with Dr. Robin Rice.

Jeremy Aye, originally from Phoenix, made his professional debut with Arizona Opera over 20 years ago as Silvano in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. During his early years with the company, Aye performed various roles including Masetto (Don Giovanni), Marullo (Rigoletto), and Jake Wallace (La Fanciulla del West).

As an equal lover of operatic and musical theater repertoire, Aye's vocal and dramatic versatility have enabled him to portray well-known baritone and bass-baritone roles such as Emile de Becque (South Pacific), Count (The Marriage of Figaro), Sky Masterson (Guys and Dolls), Colline (La Bohème), Lancelot (Camelot), Harry Easter (Street Scene), Sprecher (The Magic Flute) and El Gallo (The Fantasticks!).

Before making his Carnegie Hall debut as the baritone soloist in Fauré’s Requiem, Aye performed with companies such as Opera Colorado, Los Angeles Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Phoenix Symphony, Opera Omaha, Kansas City Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Fullerton Civic Light Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera (Apprentice Artist).

Over the course of 15 years, Aye was an active extra chorister at The Metropolitan Opera, having appeared in over 470 performances in 25 different productions. And beyond his stage experience, Aye also served as an adjunct voice professor at New York University for the last 18 years, teaching classical and musical theater vocal performance majors, as well as the repertoire curriculum for the NYU’s Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy.

Propelled by his love of the serene desert lifestyle, Aye has returned to Arizona, where he currently maintains an in-person and online private voice studio in Phoenix and New York City.

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.

Mario Pacheco is an emerging Canadian stage director hailing from Hamilton, Ontario. He is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Honours Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program and is currently pursuing the University of Toronto’s Artist Diploma in Operatic Stage Direction under the mentorship of Michael Albano. Assistant directing credits include This is Prophetic with Against the Grain Theatre/UofT Opera, La bohème with Brott Opera, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opera NUOVA, and Le nozze di Figaro with Western University Opera. Most recently, Pacheco directed Il segreto di Susanna, The Bear, and Bon Appétit! for the University of Toronto Opera Division. Future engagements include directing the student composer collective, Disobedience, as well as assisting on Il barbiere di Siviglia and Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, directed by Tim Albery for The University of Toronto Opera Division.

Michael Salvatore Commendatore is originally from Rhode Island, Michael currently lives in Chicago, IL with his amazing wife, Katie, and their lovable cats, Sebastian and JJ. Commendatore travels around the country designing for theatre, opera, dance, installations and more. Commendatore blends his love for film and theatre by designing projections at places like the Spoleto Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Public Theatre, Music Theatre Wichita, Portland Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, DePaul University, Colgate University, Williams College, SUNY Stonybrook, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Emerald City Theatre, Vancouver Fringe Festival, and more. Commendatore also has had the opportunity to work on shows at Juilliard, Carnegie Hall, Miami Ballet, Houston Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and The Lincoln Center Theater. Commendatore holds an MFA in Design from Yale School of Drama, and also just received a Jeff award for Best Projection Design in Chicago for his work in It Came From Outer Space the Musical at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.