La Traviata

Acclaimed for his “powerful yet warm, rich toned and passionate tenor” in the 2026/27 Season, tenor Eric Taylor will debut Alfredo Germont in La Traviata at Arizona Opera, return to the role of Don José in Carmen with Madison Opera and North Carolina Opera, and return to The Metropolitan Opera twice as the First Philistine in Samson et Dalila and the Messenger in Aida. In the 2025/26 Season he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as First Armored Man in The Magic Flute, and performed his signature role of Lieutenant Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Glimmerglass Festival, Opera North Carolina, and Opera Grand Rapids in three house debuts. He also joined the roster of the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the same title, as well as debuted with the American Symphony Orchestra for the American debut of Cornelius’s Stabat Mater.

Taylor first joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in the 2024/25 Season for Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, before returning to the role of B.F. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Utah Opera and Pittsburgh Opera. He also joined Palm Beach Opera as Roméo in Roméo & Juliette.

In the 2023/24 Season, Taylor returned to Houston Grand Opera as Pinkerton and made his Detroit Opera debut in the same role. He appeared as Rodolfo in La Bohème with Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist and was named a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. A graduate of the Butler Studio at Houston Grand Opera, his credits there include Narraboth in Salome, Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, First Armored Man in The Magic Flute, and Benvolio in Roméo & Juliette. He also covered Werther, Don José in Carmen, Tamino in The Magic Flute, and Mark in The Wreckers.

An alumnus of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, he appeared as Melot in Tristan und Isolde and covered Don José in Carmen as well as Rodolfo in La Bohème. Additional training includes Central City Opera and Utah Lyric Opera. Taylor holds a Master of Music from Rice University and a Bachelor of Music from Westminster College. He was the first prize winner of the 2023 Houston Saengerbund Competition.

New York–based Mexican mezzo-soprano Rosario Armas, originally from Tlaxcala, Mexico, earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and recently completed her Master of Musical Arts degree at the Yale School of Music, where she was also awarded the Smriti Deb Memorial Prize for Outstanding Singer.

Her operatic highlights include the title role in La tragédie de Carmen, Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, Anita in La Navarraise, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and Dorabella in Così fan tutte. She has also performed selections from Carmen in concert with the Washington National Opera Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Armas is the recipient of the Judith Raskin Scholarship and the International Advisory Board Scholarship. Her awards include First Prize in the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition, Third Prize in the Joan Taub Ades Competition, Second Prize in the Gerda Lissner Foundation Zarzuela Division, and multiple Encouragement Awards at the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition district level, where she was also named Washington, D.C. District Winner in 2025.

Armas has been a young artist at Wolf Trap Opera, Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and recently Opera Theater of St. Louis. Her artistic work also extends beyond the stage, including a 2023 commission from composer Julian de la Chica, resulting in two album releases in 2024. Alongside her operatic career, Armas is an interpreter of bolero and traditional Mexican mariachi music, which remains a central part of her artistic identity. She will be joining Arizona Opera this fall in its Young Artist Program

Cameron Howard of Irvington, Kentucky, is an exciting young tenor whose passion for storytelling stretches across opera, 21st century music, musical theatre, and pop. He has appeared with Des Moines Metro Opera and Opera Fusion: New Works, and will join the Marion Roose Pullin Studio at Arizona Opera for the 2026/27 Season.

Howard made his professional debut with Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) as a Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Artist in 2025, where he performed in the ensembles of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In 2026, he returns to DMMO as an apprentice artist, where he will cover the role of Lennie Small in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, and performs the role of Tenor Voice in Szymanowski’s King Roger.

Howard recently graduated with a Master of Music from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). While there, he performed the role of Adolfo Pirelli in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in a monumental collaboration between the departments of opera and musical theatre. He was praised by Talkin’ Broadway for being “outstanding vocally” and “showing versatility in his acting.” He also performed the role of Il Podestà in Mozart’s rarely performed The Secret Gardener. While at CCM, Howard was a champion of 21st century works. He was a featured soloist in the Jennifer Higdon Festival, where he performed as Veasy in an excerpt from her opera Cold Mountain. He also performed the role of Frank in a workshop of Laura Kaminsky’s The Post Office, in collaboration with Opera Fusion: New Works. This work recently made its debut with American Opera Projects in Brooklyn, NY.

Howard found great success during his undergraduate years at the University of Kentucky. He performed the role of Little Bat in Floyd’s Susannah, covered the role of Judge Danforth and performed the role of Ezekiel Cheever in Ward’s The Crucible. He also spent a summer at the prestigious Chautauqua Opera Conservatory, founded by legendary voice teacher Marlena Malas. He had the honor of studying with Malas in her final year of leading the program before her passing. While there, he performed the role of Le petit vieillard in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. He holds a Master of Music from CCM, a Bachelor of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Kentucky. He is a proud Kentucky native, and credits the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts as the inspiration for his pursuit of a career in music.

José Olivares previously served as the 2025/26 Bass-Baritone Young Artist with Fort Worth Opera this past Fall/Spring where he sang the roles of Ludovic in Belle et la bete and Yakuside in Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. Olivares also performed roles with Finger Lakes Opera as Simone in Gianni Schicchi and Count Ceprano in Rigoletto. During his time as a resident artist with Lyric Opera of Kansas City during the 2023/24 Season, he covered the role of Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana and performed Duke in Roméo & Juliette. Other past roles have included Horace in Hello, Dolly!, Pandolfe in Cinderella, and Holborn in The Manchurian Candidate at Seagle Festival, Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love, Colline in La Bohème at Opera Magnífico, Farfarello in The Love for Three Oranges at Des Moines Metro Opera and Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Olivares holds a Masters from the University of Oklahoma and Bachelors from East Texas A&M University. This summer, Olivares will be performing as Senator Potter’s Assistant/French Priest in Fellow Travelers at Glimmerglass Festival.

Stephanie Rhodes Russell is an alum of the Dallas Opera’s Institute for Women Conductors, the Houston Grand Opera Studio and San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program. She was a Conducting Fellow with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra from 2019-2021, where she appeared regularly with the ensemble leading education, family, and community concerts while serving as cover conductor for the symphonic subscription series. She is also the recipient of a 2019 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, designed to aid outstanding young conductors in developing their talents and careers.

The 2024/25 Season brings a number of significant returns for Maestro Rhodes Russell: Hänsel und Gretel with Utah Opera, Aida with Arizona Opera, and Washington National Opera for the orchestrated World Premiere of Jungle Book by Kamala Sankaram (composer) and Kelley Rourke (librettist). She also makes her orchestral debut with the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera conducting works by Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

During the 2023/24 Season, the conductor made debuts with Washington National Opera, leading Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me, and Arizona Opera, adding Gounod’s Roméo & Juliette to her repertoire. With Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, she conducted performances of Tchaikovsky’s masterwork Eugene Onegin.

Rhodes Russell’s 2022/23 Season included company debuts with Austin Opera (The Barber of Seville), Utah Opera (La fille du régiment), and Cincinnati Opera (The Knock), as well as returns to Madison Opera (The Marriage of Figaro) and Wolf Trap Opera (Don Giovanni).

The previous season included leading performances of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with Wolf Trap Opera, her debut with Opera Orlando conducting Verdi’s La traviata, and a collaboration with Lyric Opera of Chicago, leading a workshop of Git Here (Daniel Bernard Roumain/Anna Deavere Smith) and Four Portraits (Caroline Shaw/Jocelyn Clark). She initially planned to serve as Music Director for Opera Philadelphia’s production of Henze’s El Cimarrón during the season, but it was unfortunately cancelled due to the effects of COVID-19.

Stephanie Rhodes Russell’s 2020/21 Season included scheduled returns to the Dallas Opera to conduct Bizet’s Dr. Miracle, a concert of opera excerpts at the NorthPark Center, and the highly anticipated Lawrence Brownlee: Songs for Dallas concert in the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Additionally, she conducted a filmed production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw with the Temple University Opera Program, and in the summer of 2021 she joined Madison Opera for their annual Opera in the Park program.

Rhodes Russell frequently draws on her Russian specialty, and during the summer of 2020, conducted excerpts of Tchaikovksy’s Eugene Onegin for Wolf Trap Opera, a change from the scheduled full production due to COVID-19. A Fulbright award recipient in Russia, she lived in Moscow specializing in Russian repertoire and pronunciation for non-native singers while working as a guest coach at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. She was thereafter commissioned by The Dallas Opera to transliterate Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and has taught workshops on Russian diction for singers at young artist programs and universities across the United States. Immediately following her 2020 performances with Wolf Trap Opera, she returned to Fort Worth to lead the Symphony Orchestra in the Concerts in the Garden 4th of July performances.

Following her work on the San Francisco Opera Ring Cycle, she was appointed the 2019 Associate Conductor of the Grand Teton Music Festival, where she served as assistant to Music Director Donald Runnicles and led the GTMF orchestra in the Hartley Family Concert. Additionally, she performed as a pianist in the festival’s renowned Chamber Music Concert Series.

Other recent engagements include concerts with the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra, performances of Handel’s Alcina at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, an engagement with Washington National Opera’s forum for new works, the American Opera Initiative, and The Magic Flute and Dido and Aeneas with the Miami Music Festival. Highlights as an Assistant Conductor include work on two Wagner Ring Cycles with conductors Philippe Auguin and Donald Runnicles and productions of Iolanta, Eugene Onegin, and Queen of Spades with Emmanuel Villaume and Carlo Rizzi. She has served on the music staff of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, The Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Washington National Opera, amongst others, and her extensive operatic experience in the roles of assistant conductor, prompter, chorusmaster, rehearsal pianist, and diction coach, brings a comprehensive understanding to her work.

Beginning in autumn 2022, Stephanie Rhodes Russell will be Associate Professor and Music Director of Opera at the University of North Texas. This position intersects with her strong interest in educating the next generation of artists, which also led her to found the non-profit Women’s Artistic Leadership Initiative (Women’s ALI). The organization’s aim is to educate and empower young female artists, training them to become future community leaders by equipping them with both leadership skills and business acumen. She holds degrees in Collaborative Piano and Piano Performance from the University of Michigan and Utah State University, respectively, and completed a doctorate in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Utah.