Houstonian Tara Faircloth had no intentions of wintering in 蜜柚直播, but for the past three months, she has done just that.
She arrived here in December to direct 蜜柚直播 Opera鈥檚 production of Bizet鈥檚 鈥淐armen鈥 and was expecting to be back home in Texas right after the show wrapped in Phoenix in early February.
But in mid-December, Faircloth got a phone call from 蜜柚直播 Opera Executive Director Ryan Taylor. Seems the director booked a year ago for 鈥淒on Giovanni鈥 had to pull out. Would she mind taking over?
鈥淲hen he first asked me I said, 鈥楴o鈥. It鈥檚 a huge opera. It鈥檚 a monument in the repertory and I want to be well prepared,鈥 she explained. 鈥淏ut he said all the right things to me. Ultimately I realized I work with a lot of young artists at the Houston Grand Opera and every day I go into coaching and I may or may not know what we are going to be rehearsing before I arrive. But 鈥 we work together and we make amazing magic together. I kind of decided I would lean on my skills I鈥檝e learned over the years. As a performing artist I think we have this idea that we can control a lot of things, and that鈥檚 not what art is about. It鈥檚 about discovery.鈥
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As she is speaking it begins to sound like Faircloth is still trying to convince herself that sticking around for 鈥淒on Giovanni,鈥 which played in Phoenix last weekend and comes to 蜜柚直播 Music Hall this weekend, was such a good idea.
鈥淚 know parts of 鈥楧on Giovanni鈥 really well, but I don鈥檛 know the whole opera really well. I had never directed it before,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut I love 蜜柚直播 Opera and I wanted to make sure they were well taken care of. So here I am.鈥
Faircloth inherited the production, which she described as a fairly traditional take on 鈥淕iovanni鈥 鈥 Mozart鈥檚 opera buffa centered on the fictional lady鈥檚 man Don Juan.
But 鈥淚 was able to make my mark on some elements of the set just working with the pieces we had in place but working with them in a different way,鈥 she said.
The production has six characters, all of them double-cast, which means that no two productions are alike, she added.
鈥淎s a lady director, I spend a lot of time thinking about my ladies in the operas and I feel these lady characters are pretty well developed, and some of them in ways that I have not seen before on stage,鈥 she said. 鈥淪o I am kind of excited about that.鈥