Dylan F. Thomas
is the founder and Artistic Director of Center
Stage Opera in Canoga Park, CA, where he has directed
full productions of numerous operas, including Gounod's Faust,
Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro,
Puccini's Tosca,
Verdi's Rigoletto,
Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore,
Gounod's Romeo et Juliette,
Verdi's La traviata, Donizetti's
Lucia di Lammermoor, and Rossini's
La cambiale di matrimonio. He
will direct a new production of J. Strauss' Die Fledermaus in February
2011, and in June 2011, he directs the world premiere of Marie's
Orchard, a new opera for which Thomas penned the libretto,
by composer Philip Westin.
Mr. Thomas directed The Magic Flute
for the Pacific Symphony's
Family Musical Mornings series in March 2009. He was then asked to
write and direct their Halloween Spooktacular
concert in October 2009 as well as their Superheroes!
show in 2010, and was recently asked back to write and direct the
2010 Halloween show for the
family series in October 2010. He directed the semi-staged concert
Opera Under the Stars during
the final season of Orange County, CA's Opera
Pacific, which featured opera super-stars Ana Maria
Martinez, Chad Shelton, and Quinn Kelsey performing operatic favorites
with the Opera Pacific Orchestra conducted by Maestro John DeMain.
Thomas worked as the outreach stage director at Opera Pacific, where
he staged the educational outreach show entitled Fun
With Opera, wrote and directed Opera
Soup for Opera Pacific's "Opera in the Park"
presentation in 2008, and also directed The
Tinker of Tivoli for their Opera Camp program in summer
2008.
Metropolitan Opera soprano,
Ana
Maria Martinez, described Thomas as "thinking out of
the box in an intriguing and captivating way... an inspiring director
and mentor, particularly for young artists." Baritone Quinn
Kelsey, of Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, says
that Thomas, "utilized his own intuitive twists on the storyline
of certain pieces to give me as a singer a different perspective of
my interpretation." Kelsey says that Thomas' unique new
production and staging concepts "... could prove quite useful
in bringing more and more audiences back to the opera. Mr. Thomas'
insight just seems to me to be a very healthy way to reenergize opera
productions."
As a singer and actor, Dylan F. Thomas has performed extensively throughout
California as well as internationally in opera, musical theater, and
jazz. He recently performed the role of Cavaradossi
in Puccini's Tosca with Center
Stage Opera (CA), and he sang the role of Amadee
and Young Amadee in the professional recording of
Philip Westin’s new Opera Americana, Heartland,
featuring members of the Opera Pacific Chorus, and under the musical
direction of Maestro Henri Venanzi. Other operatic experience includes
several roles with the CSUN Opera Theater, as well as professional
engagements with the Opera Pacific, Center Stage Opera, Euterpe Opera,
Bear Valley Opera, and Opera Pasadena. Mr. Thomas has sung the roles
of Alfred in Die Fledermaus,
Larry/Matt in The Face
on the Barroom Floor, Daniel in Donizetti's
Betly, Mr. Splinters
in The Tender Land, Armored
Man in The Magic Flute,
and Barton in Esperanza.
He recently made his debut in the role of Alfredo
in La traviata, opposite his
real-life wife, Shira Renee Thomas, and also sang the role of Don
Jose in Bizet's Carmen
for a concert performance with Center Stage Opera (CA).
For ten months during 2006, Mr. Thomas was engaged as a performer
in three different variety shows at Universal
Studios in Osaka, Japan. There he had the pleasure
of singing not only opera repertoire, but musical theater and jazz
as well. He performed the role of Luigi in the street
theater production of The Five Topping Opera,
and was also a tenor soloist in the holiday spectacular, A
White Christmas Carol, seen by upwards
of 40,000 people each performance. In addition, USJ created a holiday
jazz show, which was conceptualized in part by Mr. Thomas.
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