Biography.

Frances Rabalais is an opera director, intimacy and fight specialist, and educator, known for bringing intensely evocative style to classic operatic repertoire and new opera works alike. With training in stage combat and dramatic intimacy, she brings a unique constellation of skills that results in operas that are fulfilling for the performers as well as the audience. 

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Frances is passionate about training the next generation of opera singers to be excellent physical storytellers as well as skillful singers. In the summer 2024, she was Acting Instructor for Central City Opera, taking a leadership role in the education of 24 artists in the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program. She intends to continue working with young opera artists in the future. 

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Recent directing credits include Tosca for Madison Opera, Macbeth for Resonance Works, and Hansel and Gretel for Opera Birmingham. She has also directed productions for Pensacola Opera, North Carolina Opera, New Orleans Opera, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Opera Omaha, and Tri-Cities Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera. She has been an assistant at Houston Grand Opera, Opera Colorado, Washington National Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. Ms. Rabalais is a certified Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors in three weapons and theatrical firearms, and the predominance of her formal training in intimacy work is through Intimacy Directors & Choreographers.  

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In 2025, Frances’s film directing debut Penelope (based on the art song of the same name by Cecilia Livingston) will premiere at a yet to be determined venue in New York. She will also be directing a new production of Maria de Buenos Aires with Madison Opera, which will explore the interaction between religion and sex work.