MUSIC | THURSDAY–SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30–November 2 | $20 ($10 for Students)
Gonzo Opera from the Crypt: The Other Side of the Veil
Gonzo Opera is back at FUSION | The Cell with “Operas from the Crypt”, running October 30–November 2! Come experience genuine opera but with wild and crazy characters and stories one would never expect to find in traditional opera!
"I thought I hated opera, but this is great" —Response to Too Much Coffee Man Gonzo Opera at Comic-Con in San Diego
What happens when the composer goes mad?? Remember those old Tales from the Crypt comic books, so over-the-top you'd get arrested for giving them to kids today? Gonzo Opera’s production, Operas from the Crypt: The Other Side of the Veil, is an homage to those old comics—creepy and funny at the same time. Written by librettist Jonathan David Dixon and Emmy-award-winning composer Daniel Steven Crafts, this hour-long work features Thomas Griego (Grave Robber), Thomas Munro (Erik Ingels), Hannah Stephens (Marie), Megan Snow (Clarinet), Ronald Thurman (Bassoon), and Scott Jacobsen (Keyboard).
PERFORMANCE TIMES
Thursday, October 30 at 7 PM
Friday, October 31 at 7 PM
Sunday, November 2 at 2 PM
TICKET COST
$20 General Admission
$10 Student
Read more about last year’s production in The Albuquerque Journal in Hello from 'The Other Side': 'Opera from the Crypt' pays homage to 'Tales of the Crypt' comics from the 1950s!
ABOUT GONZO OPERA
GONZO: It's not your Grandma's opera! Gonzo Opera is modern, tuneful, bawdily hilarious and REAL OPERA. Our mission is to breathe new life into an art form dangerously close to becoming a museum piece—using humor, modern themes, and wonderful singers with beautiful melodies.
OTHER SIDE OF THE VEIL—BIOS
THOMAS GRIEGO (The Grave Robber) has performed on stage from an early age participating in dozens of Community and Children’s Theater productions in the Los Angeles, California area through his college years. After graduating from California Lutheran University in 1976, Mr. Griego left the stage to study Law at the University of New Mexico and begin a successful legal career, returning to the stage in 2014 for the Opera Southwest production of La Boheme, performing in the chorus every season since then in Verdi’s Aida, Rossini’s Tancredi, Rossini, William Tell, Puccini’s Tosca, Bottesini’s Ali Baba, Catan’s Il Postino, Verdi’s La Traviata, Rossini’s Le Comte Ory, Puccini’s Turandot and most recently in the 2024 season’s production of Bizet’s Carmen performed in Spanish. Mr. Griego has performed as “A Sacristan” in Tosca and was cast in the role of “Chavez” in Opera Southwest production of Armienta’s Bless Me, Ultima and as “Don Fernando” in Armienta’s “Zorro”. He has been active in liturgical music ministry for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and at the Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Albuquerque.
THOMAS MUNRO (Erik Ingels | The Mad Composer). Thomas Munro’s “magnificent” dramatic baritone voice is coming to stages for the first time since he moved away from lyric roles toward heavier repertoire. Roles have included Tonio in Pagliacci, Figaro and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte. He has been seen with the University of New Mexico Opera Theatre, the Lowell House Opera Company (Cambridge, MA) and Vertical Player Repertory (Brooklyn). Lieder performances have included the alto/baritone songs of Das Lied von der Erde and an experimental performance of Winterreise from the piano!
HANNAH STEPHENS (Marie). Lyric coloratura soprano, Hannah Stephens, resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and performs worldwide. Miss Stephens recently performed a stunning Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra. After her debut of Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina, with West Edge Opera, critic, Victor Cordell, for AllEvents wrote: “Hannah Stephens soprano is light and bright as Poppea. The opera is replete with challenging coloratura and staccato passages for which her voice is particularly effective.”
Another recent success was her touching and heartfelt performance of Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, with the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra.
Some past highlights of her operatic career include the Queen of the Night, Musetta, and Gilda. Miss Stephens enjoys the challenge of contemporary music, and is working with several composers on new works. She has sung with West Bay Opera, Pocket Opera, and Spreckels Performing Arts Center. Hannah’s successes in concert include Strauss’ Vier Letze Lieder, Schoenbergs String Quartet No. 2 and Villas-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras.
Other highlights of her operatic career were the role of Nella (Gianni Schicchi) with the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), which she performed in Weimar, Germany. Miss Stephens was selected by the opera department of the Jacobs School to sing both Königen der Nacht arias from Mozarts Die Zauberflöte, for public concert. She performed the US premiere of Lorenzo Palomos Mi jardín solitario.
Born in the United Kingdom, Miss Stephens is a dual citizen and received her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from Indiana University, studying with Carlos Montané, and her Bachelor’s from the University of New Mexico, studying with Marilyn Tyler.
RON THURMAN (Bassoon) is a student at the University of New Mexico and a longtime lover of both opera and funny jokes.
SCOTT JACOBSEN (Keyboard) is a freelance musician based in Albuquerque. He performs on both the piano and the saxophone in a wide variety of genres. In addition to working frequently as a collaborative pianist with instrumentalists and vocalists, Scott is a founding member of Basilaris, whose original jazz fusion music can be heard somewhere in town almost every weekend of the year. He has benefited from the mentorship of such local luminaries of jazz as Bobby Shew, Doug Lawrence, and Glenn Kostur. If he isn't at a gig or a rehearsal, he is probably at home playing Chopin or Liszt.
MEGAN SNOW (clarinet) is a musician and dancer in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe Metro area. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Montana, and a Master of Music degree from the University of New Mexico. She is also a student of Javanese gamelan and dance, and attended the Ekalaya Institute in Surakarta City, Indonesia, to study music and dance. Snow has played with several ensembles in New Mexico, including Gamelan Encantada, Sandia Wind Quintet, Opera Southwest, Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and the San Juan Symphony. She has also danced with Gamelan Encantada, New Mexico Ballet Company, and Garden City Ballet Company. Owner of Snow Music Studio, she has taught private music lessons for 10 years.
JONATHAN DAVID DIXON (librettist and stage director) is an actor who has done much theater work, where favorite roles have including Salieri in Amadeus, Vincent in Inventing Van Gogh, Mark Twain in A Few Stout Individuals, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Emil’s Enemies. He has had principal roles in the series’ Longmire, Preacher, Gunslingers, Duster, American Primeval, and Killer Women, as well as the film War On Everyone. He is also an artist who has illustrated works by Lewis Carroll, including the first publication of Carroll’s “Ballad Opera for Marionettes”, La Guida di Bragia. He is also a songwriter/composer, and composed the score for Ben Wickey’s multi-award-winning stop-motion animated featurette The House of the Seven Gables —(viewable on YouTube) — for which he also recorded the voice of Mr. Holgrave. His setting of “The Carol of the Field-Mice” (from The Wind in the Willows) was requested to be performed at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s Christmas concert in London, and his full-length album of “pop songs” — Otherwhere — is also available on YouTube. With Daniel Steven Crafts, he has collaborated on two “Operas from the Crypt”, inspired by the lurid old horror comics of the 1950s, writing the librettos, and his collection of short stories, Santa Fe Tales — absurd, somewhat autobiographical “Magic Realism” stories set in his own fantasy version of that city — will be coming out soon.
DANIEL STEVEN CRAFTS (composer | not yet mad) is a composer who wrote for the great tenor, Jerry Hadley, until his tragic death. Their first collaboration, The Song & the Slogan was released as a program for the PBS network and won an Emmy for Best Music. To date, Mr. Crafts has completed 22 operas, 18 symphonies, 6 concertos, and 17 large orchestral works, as well as a variety of shorter pieces. Having spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Crafts moved to New Mexico in 1999.