Frances Rabalais, stage director

Frances Rabalais, Stage Director

Frances Rabalais is a second-year Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist in 2017-18. She is scheduled to assistant stage direct Tosca, The Marriage of Figaro, Ashes & Snow, Moby-Dick, and The Elixir of Love. She is scheduled to stage direct The Long Walk this winter.

Ms. Rabalais started directing not long after returning to her hometown, New Orleans, in 2010. There, she directed the 2012 world premiere of The Portrait of Jonathan Jenkins with New Fangled Opera, Great Britten (Scenes Program) with Loyola Opera in 2013, and Krispy Kremes and Butter Queens at the 2014 New Fangled Festival of Opera.

During her first-year as a Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist in 2016-17, She stage directed Pittsburgh Opera’s New Year’s Eve performance at Carnegie Music Hall. She also assistant stage directed La traviata, Salome, Richard the Lionheart, Turandot and the world premiere of The Summer King.

While pursuing advanced studies at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), Ms. Rabalais assistant directed L’incoronazione di Poppea, Così fan tutte, and The Merry Widow. She  directed Baden Baden 1927: Hin und Zurück and Mahagonny Songspiel at CCM in 2014, The Little Prince with Cincinnati Chamber Opera in 2015, and most recently, Il Signor Bruschino with CCM in 2016.

Ms. Rabalais has been an assistant director for operas at The Brevard Music Center in 2012, Crested Butte Music Festival in 2013, and Pensacola Opera from 2012-2014. During the summer of 2015, she was the assistant director for Glimmerglass Opera’s production of The Magic Flute.

She was named a recipient CCM’s Ralph Corbett Scholarship in both 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. In addition, New Orleans’ Gambit Magazine awarded her their 2013 Best Creative Performance in Classical Music for her Great Britten program.

After receiving a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Louisiana State University, Ms. Rabalais earned an Artist’s Diploma in Stage Direction for Opera from the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music.

Ms. Rabalais's residency is generously sponsored by Virginia di Pucci and Hale Oliver.

Visit Ms. Rabalais’s personal website, and follow her on Instagram.