John de los Santos
Stage Director
John de los Santos has been called a 鈥渂rilliant combination of literary insight and choreographic creativity鈥 (D Magazine). His stagings include opera, musicals, plays, concerts, and ballet. His productions include the world premieres of Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun (Santa Fe Opera), Stardust (Helios Opera), Pure Country (Lyric Stage), and The Astronaut Love Show at the Kraine Theater (NYC). Other productions include The Rose and the Knife, Otello, and Le Comte Ory (called 鈥渁 perfect fusion鈥 by The New York Times) for LoftOpera (NYC), La Cage Aux Folles for Skylight Music Theatre, La Fille du Regiment for Arizona Opera, South Pacific for Ashlawn Opera, Mar铆a de Buenos Aires for San Diego and Fort Worth Opera, and Lexington Philharmonic, and Green Sneakers for Opera Birmingham and the Southside Theatre at San Francisco鈥檚 historic Fort Mason Center. He choreographed the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally鈥檚 Great Scott, directed by Jack O鈥橞rien, for the Dallas Opera. His choreography has also been seen at the Washington National, Florida Grand, Philadelphia, Des Moines Metro, Utah Festival, and Austin Lyric Opera Companies.
John鈥檚 first libretto with composer Clint Borzoni, When Adonis Calls, was selected for inclusion in Fort Worth Opera鈥檚 2015 Frontiers showcase and Opera America鈥檚 2017 New Works Forum. It had its world premiere at Asheville Lyric Opera in 2018, directed and choreographed by the librettist. John鈥檚 second collaboration with Borzoni, The Copper Queen, won the top prize Arizona Opera鈥檚 commission program, Arizona SPARK and premiered in 2021 as an award-winning feature film. John and Clint are currently in development with The American Opera Project on the holiday opera, The Christmas Spider. John was commissioned by Washington National Opera鈥檚 American Opera Initiative to create an original work with composer Christopher Weiss. The resulting piece, Service Provider, premiered at The Kennedy Center in 2015, and has since been performed by Urban Arias, Opera Memphis, Hawaii Opera Theater, Virginia Opera, Opera Idaho, Westminster Opera Theatre, and was selected as the first opera performed by the Lake George Music Festival. In 2019, his one-act collaboration with Scott Bradley Joiner, The Shower, premiered at the Vienna Summer Music Festival. Over the summer of 2020, John and composer Marc Mig贸 were commissioned by UrbanArias to write an operatic film as part of Decameron Opera Project. The film, The Roost, was directed by John and was then included in the archives of the Library of Congress. John is a co-librettist for Ghosts, composed by Nicolas Reveles, and will direct the premiere at San Diego Opera in 2023. John has also collaborated with composers Robert Paterson, Tony Solitro, and Lingbo Ma. John has served as librettist and stage director at The Juilliard School, The Yale School of Music, and The Manhattan School of Music.
From 2003 to 2010, he served as resident choreographer for the Fort Worth Opera which included the world premieres of Frau Margot and Before Night Falls. John made his directing debut there with Carmen, followed by The Mikado, The Pearl Fishers, Maria de Buenos Aires, and La Traviata. John has served on the directing faculty of the Seagle Music Colony in Schroon Lake, NY, where his productions have included Anything Goes, Crazy for You, The Medium, The Fantasticks, The Mikado, La Boheme, Guys & Dolls, Brigadoon and L鈥橧taliana in Algeri. John has also coached young artists with the Washington National, Arizona, Fort Worth, and Des Moines Metro Opera Companies.
Other productions include Italienisches Liederbuch for Voces Intimae, The Golden Apple and the world premiere of Pure Country for Lyric Stage, Spring Awakening and Dogfight for WaterTower Theatre, and Carousel for Ashlawn Opera. For the Dallas-based theatre company Uptown Players, John choreographed the American premiere of the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven, the regional premiere of Altar Boyz (for which John was awarded the DFW Critics Forum Award for Best Choreography), and directed and choreographed the regional premiere of Hello Again and the American premiere of Soho Cinders. John is originally from San Antonio, Texas, where he performed as a principal member of the Alamo City Dance Company. He received his BFA in Theatre/Film Performance & Direction from Texas Christian University.
