Arizona Opera Arizona Opera Arizona Opera is an opera company which operates in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Arizona Opera was established in 1971 as the Tucson Opera Company, under founding general director James P. Sullivan, and presented its first production, of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", in 1972. By 1976 the company had expanded to include performances in both Tucson and Phoenix. Arizona Opera is now permanently headquartered in Phoenix. The company has a subscriber base of approximately 10,000 drawn from the two metropolitan areas, and an annual expenditure of $5.8 million, according to the company's 2011 IRS Form 990. The
Opera Pacific in the Festival of Opera." The first productions included such traditional repertory as "Madame Butterfly", "The Marriage of Figaro", and "The Barber of Seville"; "I Pagliacci" and "The Devil and Daniel Webster" were presented as a double billing during the 1965 season. In the early 1980s members of the "Opera Leaque", along with other opera aficionados throughout Orange County, combined to form the core audience for the anticipated opening of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in neighboring Costa Mesa, at which time Opera Pacific was incorporated. Opera Pacific has been host to many of opera's greatest living legends, including