Stage director Tara Faircloth’s work has been seen in opera houses around the nation and beyond. Critics hailed her 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, she created new productions of Semele (Wolf Trap Opera), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Juilliard Opera), Amadigi (Ars Lyrica Houston), and Don Giovanni (Arizona Opera), and remounted several of her own productions:  Pagliacci and The Little Prince at Utah Opera, and Loving Clara with Mercury.   The 25/26 season includes new productions of Elmer Gantry, The Marriage of Figaro and a fully-staged expansion of the Fidelio she created for the Houston Symphony in 2017.  In addition to her thriving career in regional houses such as Utah Opera and Arizona Opera, Ms. Faircloth has worked extensively on the directing staff of such companies as Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Central City Opera, and she spent summer 2024 working with the fine young artists at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, Japan. She makes her home in Austin, Texas, where she enjoys keeping a large garden and fostering kittens and bulldogs with various rescue groups in town.