He was barely 30 years old, and virtually unknown in the music world, when he succeeded in 1957 with an audacious idea: creating an opera company on a hilltop in an out-of-the-way location in the Southwest. John Crosby carefully guided The Santa Fe Opera for the next 45 years.
Writer and critic Craig Smith, author of "A Vision of Voices: John Crosby and The Santa Fe Opera," the founder's first full-length biography just published by UNM Press, describes Crosby as an "obsessive" musician and businessman who inspired both fear and respect.
In this longer version of the conversation, Smith talks about Crosby's approach to presenting operas, which was influenced by Rudolf Bing, and why The Santa Fe Opera had such a deep and immediate impact on the New Mexico arts scene.
