Described as “vocally glorious” (San Diego Story) and by Opera News as a “standout” with “impeccable pitch and phrasing,” acclaimed soprano Sarah Tucker is a must-see performer in leading opera houses across the United States and beyond.
Last season, Ms. Tucker made her Sarasota Opera début as Micaëla in Carmen and returned to Gulfshore Opera as Liù in Turandot. She also recently appeared with Fargo Moorhead Opera as Mimì in La bohème, Houston Grand Opera as Volunteer Girl in Another City, the Vallejo Center for the Arts as Tatyana in selections from Eugene Onegin, and the Dayton Philharmonic to premiere My Sister’s Voice by composer Reena Esmail. In the upcoming 2024-2025 season, she returns to San Diego Opera to sing Mimì in La bohème and will appear as Micaela in Virginia Opera’s production of Carmen.
Ms. Tucker recently made her Dallas Symphony début when she stepped in for an ailing colleague in Verdi’s Requiem at Highland Park Presbyterian. She also made her role début as Freia in Das Rheingold with Virginia Opera, brought her Adina in L’elisir d’amore to Dayton Opera, made a celebrated role début as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with San Diego Opera, joined North Carolina Opera as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, returned to Gulfshore Opera for a reprise of her Mimì in La bohème, and performed Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Maine.
Other recent engagements have included several company débuts: Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Pensacola Opera and Mimì in La bohème with Gulfshore Opera as well as cancelled performances as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Opera in the Heights. She débuted with The Dallas Opera as Frasquita in Carmen, San Diego Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, Intermountain Opera Bozeman as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, and Opera Philadelphia where she reprised First Memory in Lembit Beecher’s War Stories, a role which she first premiered with Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City. Additionally, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto with Opera Connecticut and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. Other previous highlights include her début with Utah Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, several role débuts with Arizona Opera including Micaëla in Carmen, Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas and her San Francisco Opera début as Jano in Jenufa.
Passionate about uncommon works as well as traditional operatic repertoire, Ms. Tucker collaborated with conductor Scott Terrell in Lexington Philharmonic’s 2015 Holiday Series, which included the rarely performed Song of the Angel by John Tavener. The piece’s haunting duet for soprano and solo violin requires great musical and vocal versatility, which was “stunningly realized by Tucker” (Tedrin Blair Lindsay, Contributing Music Critic, www.kentucky.com). She was also the star of a cutting-edge workshop of composer Clint Borzoni’s The Copper Queen in which she performed the role of Julia Lowell as part of Arizona Opera’s “Arizona Spark” initiative.
Other recent appearances include Norina in Don Pasquale with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with both Lexington Philharmonic and the Christ Cathedral (Crystal Cathedral) in Orange County, CA. Additional past credits include the roles of Contessa Ceprano and Paggio in Rigoletto, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Arizona Opera, for which she received high acclaim.
Ms. Tucker was a National Semifinalist in the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In addition to her success with MONCA, Ms. Tucker has received numerous awards in several nationwide vocal competitions. She was a finalist in the Fritz & Lavinia Jensen Foundation Voice Competition, in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition she was a finalist and winner of the Encouragement Award, and she competed in the semifinals of the Dallas Opera Guild and Fort Worth Opera McCammon Vocal Competitions. She was member of the Arizona Opera Studio where she sang Nelly Nettleton in Arizona Opera’s innovative, multi-lingual production of Arizona Lady, in which also “danced like a flapper” (Opera Today). Ms. Tucker is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College‐Conservatory of Music (CCM).