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
Michigan Opera Theatre Maria Ewing who sang in the 1970 "The Barber of Seville" production; Leona Mitchell, who sang Bess in the company's 1975 production of "Porgy and Bess"; Kathleen Battle, whose 1975 performance as Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" marked her operatic debut; Catherine Malfitano, who created the role of Catherine Sloper in MOT's world premiere staging of "Washington Square" in 1976. Other notable artists include The Metropolitan Opera's Jerome Hines, a bass, who in 1974 sang the title role of "Boris Godunov"; Nicole Cabell who sang Musetta in "La bohème" in 2005, a few months after winning the BBC Cardiff