Cast/Production Team

Richard Crawley, tenor (Turiddu)
American tenor Richard Crawley’s career highlights include his recent debut with the San Francisco Opera singing Cavaradossi in Tosca. He was immediately engaged to return to San Francisco Opera for Eugene Onegin, Le Grand Macabre, Dr. Atomic and Norma. Other engagements include a critically acclaimed Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Chautauqua Opera, a debut with Hawaii Opera Theatre as Cavaradossi in Tosca, and his first Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera with Opera Santa Barbara. Recently, he sang in New York City Opera’s production of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci. He has also starred in productions with Houston Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Atlanta Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Tulsa Opera and Augusta Opera. An accomplished orchestral soloist, Mr. Crawley has performed Handel’s Messiah with the New Japan Philharmonic and the Tokyo Oratorio Society, as well as at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall and with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and the Evangelist/Tenor in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica.

Amy Johnson, soprano (Santuzza)
Soprano Amy Johnson recently made her European debut as Giorgetta in Il Tabarro with Vlaamse Opera. She went on to perform the title role in Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos with the Prague National Theater Opera. Ms. Johnson has earned special acclaim for her portrayal of Tosca at New York City Opera. She has appeared in leading roles with Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera (PBS Live from Lincoln Center), Michigan Opera Theater, Indianapolis Opera, Spier Festival, South Africa, Arizona Opera, and Kentucky Opera. With Arizona Opera and Austin Lyric Opera she sang the leading role in Salome. She has performed the roles of Tatiana in Eugene Onegin with Indianapolis Opera, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with New York City Opera, Fiordiligi in Cosí Fan Tutte with Portland Opera and Indianapolis Opera, Marguerite in Faust with Orlando Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Virginia Opera and Opera Tampa, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Liù in Turandot with Opera Tampa, and Desdemona in Otello with Piedmont Opera. She created the role of Manuela in the world premiere of Thea Musgrave's Simón Bolívar for Virginia Opera. Her concert appearances include the BBC Proms Concerts at Royal Albert Hall (Simón Bolívar), the Women's Philharmonic of San Francisco and the world premiere of Thea Musgrave's Three Women and the Lulu Suite. She is a past winner of the Bel Canto National Competition, and Baltimore Opera Competition, and a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Madeleine Gray, mezzo soprano (Mama Lucia)
Madeleine Gray was born in New York, but for many years made her home in the United Kingdom. She is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, where awards included a major grant from the Peter Moores Foundation. Since returning to the United States she has enjoyed a regular association with the Washington National Opera, where she made her debut as Rebecca Nurse in performances of The Crucible, returned to cover Flora in the Marta Domingo production of La traviata, and performed the Duchess of Krakenthorp in La Fille du Régiment. She also appears regularly with Baltimore Opera where roles have included 4th Maid in Elektra, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and, most recently, Marcellina and the Voice of Antonia's Mother in critically-acclaimed productions of Le Nozze di Figaro and Les Contes d'Hoffmann. She returns to the company this season to perform Anna in Maria Stuarda and Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette.

Steven Condy, baritone (Alfio)
Baritone Steven Condy, a graduate of Yale University School of Music in voice and opera performance, has performed with opera houses throughout the United States including the Washington Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, San Francisco Opera, Arizona Opera, and Austin Lyric Opera. He has become especially well known for his portrayals of the great “buffo” roles. In 1992 he was a winner of the fourth Luciano Pavarotti International Voice competition and received a career grant in the 1994 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Competition. Recent performances include the role of Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow with the Washington National Opera, a debut with Opera Pacific as Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri, and appearances in the title roles of Verdi’s Falstaff and Gianni Schicchi with New Jersey Opera Theater. Mr. Condy was invited back to Opera Pacific to perform the role of Dr. Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’amore. Upcoming engagements include Magnifico in La Cenerentola with both Portland Opera and Utah Opera.

Vanessa Conlin, mezzo-soprano (Lola)
Young American singer Vanessa Conlin has been acclaimed for the beauty of her voice, her exciting stage presence and her superb musicianship in both soprano and high mezzo-soprano repertoire. Recent performances include Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Lyrique-en-Mer in Belle-Ile, France, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Amarillo Opera, Diana in the world premiere of The Song of Eddie at Bard Festival, Zerlina in Don Giovanni at the Bardavon Opera House and Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera with Opera Columbus. Equally at home in the concert repertoire, Ms. Conlin was recently heard in an All-Mozart concert with the Northwest Sinfonietta in Tacoma, WA, and Les nuits d’été with the Amarillo Symphony. Upcoming performances include a return with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and a debut at Bard SummerScape in the role of Die Dritte Zofe in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg.

James Marvel, Stage Director
James Marvel hails from the world of the theater but has, during the past few seasons, emerged as one of American opera’s most talked about young stage directors with intelligently crafted interpretations of many of the standard works of operatic literature, including La bohème (Opera Santa Barbara and Boheme Opera of Trenton, New Jersey),  Madama Butterfly (Virginia Opera, Tampa Opera, Piedmont Opera, and Opera Longview), Faust (Opera Santa Barbara and Augusta Opera), Rigoletto (Utah Festival Opera), La traviata (Nevada Opera Theater and Boheme Opera), Falstaff (Intermezzo Opera), Le Nozze di Figaro (Asheville Lyric Opera and Intermezzo Opera), Cavalleria Rusticana (Opera of the Hamptons), Roméo et Juliette (Boston University’s Opera Institute), and Die Fledermaus (Knoxville Opera and Intermezzo Opera). He has also worked on critically acclaimed productions of two works by Philip Glass: Akhnaten (Teatr Weilki in Lodz, Poland) and Galileo Galilei (Boston University Opera Institute).

Recent engagements include productions of The Rake’s Progress for the San Francisco Opera Merola Program Faust for Shreveport Opera, Tosca for Longview Opera and Opera Santa Barbara; new productions of Turandot and Le Nozze di Figaro for Utah Festival Opera, and new productions of Die Zauberflöte for Asheville Lyric Opera and for the Opera Company of Brooklyn. This season, he will direct Les Pêcheurs des Perles for Opera Boston, Lucia di Lammermoor for Syracuse Opera and for New Orleans Opera, Il Trovatore for the Utah Festival Opera, and scenes for Santa Fe Opera.

He recently earned critical praise for his production at New York’s Florence Gould Hall of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Menotti’s The Telephone. The success of this production led to additional performance dates at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Belgium.

International credits include work at the 5th International Theater Festival in Budapest, Hungary; the Istropolitana Theatre Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Viola Stage in Prague, Czech Republic, Teatr Wielki in Lodz, Poland, the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, the Wadham Theatre and Burton-Taylor Theatre in Oxford, England. Theater credits include repeat engagements with the Passage Theatre Company in New Jersey, Clarence Brown Theatre in Tennessee, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Inter-Act Theatre Company of Philadelphia. He also directed the Southern premiere of a new Christopher Durang play at the Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans.

In addition to his work as an actor and director, James has also played violin in numerous orchestras, composed original music for professional theater productions, danced in pieces choreographed by members of the Martha Graham company, and published works in a variety of international journals. James Marvel was born and raised in New Orleans and received his B.A. in World Literature from Sarah Lawrence College and Oxford University, England. He holds an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from the International Actor Training Academy and conducted additional studies at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

Thomas Conlin, Conductor
Thomas Conlin is a regular guest conductor with symphony orchestras, ballet companies and opera companies on five continents, most recently in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey and throughout the United States. Many of Conlin’s programs feature works by Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin and other fellow Americans, and he is a champion of music of our time, but his international career includes conducting Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov in Russia, Beethoven and Brahms in Germany, Mozart and Mahler in Austria, Debussy and Ravel in France, Verdi and Puccini in Italy, Grieg in Norway and Sibelius in Finland. Last season he led the Eastern European premiere of Bernstein’s West Side Story at the National Opera of Croatia, in Zagreb.  

Maestro Conlin’s recording of George Crumb’s Star-Child, on which he conducts the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. His music video, Symphonic Wonderworks, won the Gold Award (1st Prize) at the 1992 Houston International Film Festival and was nominated for a Telly Award. His CD of Crumb’s A Haunted Landscape was nominated for an Indie Award as Best Orchestral Recording of 2002, and his latest CD on the Bridge label, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Echoes of Time and the River, was released in 2004 to great acclaim. The first in a series of recordings of works by the Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri was released on the Naxos label last Year.

Conlin has collaborated in opera and concert with renowned vocalists Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Roberta Peters, Giorgio Tozzi and Frederica von Stade, in ballet with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Edward Villella and Violette Verdi, and with instrumentalists Emanuel Ax, Alicia de Larrocha, James Galway, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern. For Toledo Opera he has conducted recent productions of Romeo and Juliet, Don Pasquale, The Turn of the Screw, La traviata, Sweeney Todd, Don Giovanni, La bohème, The Crucible, The Barber of Seville, Faust, Madama Butterfly, Pagliacci, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca and Così fan tutte and six of TO’s Opera Galas: Three Tenors! – the Next Generation, A Night in Old Vienna, The Greatest Wagner Concert Ever!, Opera Goes to the Movies, From Russia with Love and From Broadway to the Met.