

Dylan F. Thomas recently directed the
semi-staged concert Opera Under the Stars
at Orange County's Opera Pacific, which featured
opera super-stars Ana Maria Martinez, Chad Shelton, and Quinn Kelsey performing
operatic favorites with the Opera Pacific Orchestra under the direction of
Maestro John DeMain. Thomas worked as the outreach stage director at Opera
Pacific, where he staged the educational outreach show entitled Fun
With Opera, which toured Southern California last year. He 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 this past
summer.
Mr. 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 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.
In the 2008-2009 Season, Thomas will direct full productions of Mozart's Le
nozze di Figaro and Gounod's Faust.
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 Ambrogio in Rossini's Il
barbiere di Siviglia presented by Opera Pacific. 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.
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.
Dylan F. Thomas
Artistic Director
Pricipal Stage Director
