

Dylan F. Thomas directed The
Magic Flute for the Pacific Symphony's
Family Musical Mornings series in March 2009, wrote and directed their Halloween
Spooktacular concert in October 2009, and is currently writing
and directing Superheroes! for the family series. 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.
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 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. In the 2009-2010 season, Thomas will direct Gounod's
Faust, and will remount his production
of Lucia di Lammermoor to commemorate
CSO's 5th anniversary. In September 2010, he directs the world premiere
of Marie's Orchard, a new opera for
which Thomas penned the libretto, by composer Philip Westin.
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.