Stage Director John Hoomes
RECENT PRODUCTIONS
Das Rheingold – Nashville Opera
Die Zauberflöte – Nashville Opera
Die Fledermaus – Pensacola Opera
Three Way – Brooklyn Academy of Music
La bohème – Nashville Opera
Florencia en el Amazonas – New York City Opera
Carmen – Nashville Opera
The Cook-Off – Nashville Opera
Stuck Elevator – Hawaii Opera Theater
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Nashville Opera
Pagliacci – Pensacola Opera
Florencia en el Amazonas – North Carolina Opera
Lucia di Lammermoor – Nashville Opera
The Shining – Nashville Opera
UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS
La Fanciulla del West – Nashville Opera
Il barbiere di Siviglia – Nashville Opera
John Hoomes is a freelance stage director and CEO and Artistic Director of Nashville Opera. Of his creative work, Opera News noted that Hoomes “has proved himself one of the most interesting stage directors in the regional market today with a seemingly limitless knowledge of repertoire.”
Hoomes’ 2025-2026 directing engagements include Nashville Opera’s La fanciulla del West, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and a brand-new production of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s The Shining.
A dedicated advocate for new work, Hoomes has staged five world premieres with Nashville Opera: 2005’s Surrender Road, a chamber opera by Marcus Hummon; 2007’s Elmer Gantry by Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein, which the New York Times declared “an Operatic Miracle…in Nashville.” (Hoomes staged a new production of the same work for The Florentine Opera, which was recorded on Naxos Records and subsequently won two GRAMMY Awards); 2017’s Three Way by Robert Paterson and David Cote; 2021’s Favorite Son, a folk opera by GRAMMY award winning songwriter Marcus Hummon (“Bless the Broken Road”); and most recently, a fully orchestrated and staged production of The Cook-Off by Shawn E. Okpebholo and Mark Campbell, set in the world of competitive television cooking shows.
Hoomes also directed the Southeastern professional premieres of multiple contemporary pieces with Nashville Opera: Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse, David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Carly Simon’s Romulus Hunt, Michael Nyman’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and an acclaimed production of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. Mr. Hoomes later remounted the latter production for the New York City Opera in the Rose Theatre at Lincoln Center.
As a freelance stage director, Hoomes has directed over 250 productions of opera and music theatre in the US, South America, and Canada with professional opera companies including Arizona Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Kentucky Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, New Opera Lyra, New York City Opera, North Carolina Opera, Opera Carolina, The Cleveland Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Memphis, Opera New Jersey, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Saratoga, Pensacola Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Sarasota Opera, Teatro Colón, and The Florentine Opera.
