John Crosby Dies
Santa Fe, NM. Dec. 15, 2002.
John O'Hea Crosby, whose vision and determination a half century ago created The Santa Fe Opera, died today in Palm Springs California. He was 76. Mr. Crosby served as the company's general director from its founding in 1957 until 2000 when he retired.
John Crosby was born in New York City, July 12, 1926 to Laurence Alden and Aileen O'Hea Crosby. He attended schools in New York and Connecticut, and as a young boy made his first trip to New Mexico to attend the Los Alamos Boys School. It was then that he fell in love with the northern New Mexico landscape. After military service in World War II, Mr. Crosby entered Yale University where he majored in music theory and composition. His fellow students recall his unparalleled skill and facility in composition, a talent inherited from his mother, an accomplished violinist. One of his teachers there was the well-known composer Paul Hindemith. After receiving his B.A. he returned to New York to continue his musical studies at Columbia University and with Leopold Sachse in the university opera workshop. During this time he became an assistant musical arranger to a number of Broadway composers.
Realizing that opportunities for young American singers to learn roles and develop their art were virtually nonexistent in this country, Mr. Crosby determined to start an opera company. And he chose Santa Fe. In an interview in the New York Times on the occasion of his retirement he said, “It (Santa Fe) was a community that had a flourishing art colony: painters, poets writers sculptors. And strangely from that galaxy of the arts, music was rather missing. So it seemed to me that the community would receive this missing link warmly.” His father provided the funds to buy an old ranch seven miles north of the city, and on July 3, 1957 the first performance at The Santa Fe Opera was given, Puccini's Madame Butterfly with Mr. Crosby conducting. At the invitation of a Santa Fe friend, composer Igor Stravinsky came that first summer for performances of his opera, The Rake's Progress. The two men became fast friends and the composer returned for the next six years, during which Santa Fe performed almost all of Stravinsky's operas.
In that first year Marvin David Levy's The Tower was given its world premiere. Subsequently the company commissioned nine works from leading composers including Carlisle Floyd, Luciano Berio, George Rochberg and Peter Lieberson, and presented more than forty American premieres. In 1961, the company gave the American premiere of The News of the Day by his teacher, Paul Hindemith. Mr. Crosby is recognized as the musicological scholar whose work on the manuscripts of Richard Strauss's operas, with the permission of Strauss's heirs, defined those scores. Nearly every year since 1957, a Strauss opera has been performed by the company, always conducted by Mr. Crosby himself. He has been largely credited with the resurgence of interest in this composer.
John Crosby's philosophy in founding the company was that singers would have time to prepare their roles, and that the best directors and conductors would be engaged for a lengthy rehearsal period before the first performances. The ensemble would come to Santa Fe for the summer. Another vital component in Mr. Crosby's plan was a special program for singers who had not yet begun their careers. The Apprentice Program for Singers was established in that very first season, and continues to be one of the most important in the country. Singers such as Sherill Milnes, James Morris, Neil Shicoff, Joyce di Donato, William Burden and Celena Shafer, all former apprentice singers, credit The Santa Fe Opera as being one of the most important influences on their careers.
It was the source of considerable pride to Mr. Crosby that the company could claim important debuts including Kiri Te Kanawa, and Bryn Terfel, and appearances by such opera luminaries as Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, Jerry Hadley, Elisabeth Soderstrom and Samuel Ramey, Ben Heppner Catherine Malfitano and Dawn Upshaw.
Every aspect of the operation of The Santa Fe Opera was subject to John Crosby's personal attention. In addition to the musical profile of the company, Mr. Crosby's respect for the unique New Mexico environment led to pioneering work in water recycling and wetlands projects on the opera grounds.
In 1991 Mr. Crosby was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George Bush for “giving young American artists the opportunity to train and perform in their own country.” In 1992 he was honored with the Officer's Cross of the Federal German Order of Merit from the German government. He served as president of the Manhattan School of Music from 1976 to 1986 and of Opera America from 1976 to 1980. He is the recipient of numerous awards and five honorary doctorates including one from Yale. He has also appeared as guest conductor with opera companies in this country and abroad. Mr. Crosby has been the subject of many articles, including a 1975 New Yorker profile by Winthrop Sargeant entitled, “A Miracle in the Desert.”
“The world of opera has suffered a great loss in the death of John Crosby,” stated General Director Richard Gaddes. “He was a pioneer who changed the face of opera in America.”
John Crosby was also by far the longest serving general director of any American opera company, and the only one who conducted performances every summer from 1957 through 2002.
Mr. Crosby is survived by his brother James O'Hea Crosby of Coral Gables, Florida, two nieces and one nephew. The burial in Santa Fe will be private for the members of the family only.
