Daniel Dutton

Who is Daniel Dutton?

Daniel Dutton, born 1959 near Somerset, Kentucky, is a contemporary artist, lyricist, composer, artistic director, and amateur filmmaker, whose work combines visual, musical, and narrative arts. He is best known for his first opera, The Stone Man.

During the 1980s, Dutton showed visual and video installation art at the J. B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. The Speed Museum commissioned two video works from Dutton: A Day in the Life of the Artist, and Water; an installed environment. Dutton's work was featured as a one man show in the rotunda of the US Congressional Office Building in 1985.

In 1990, Kentucky Opera premiered Dutton's first opera, The Stone Man, at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. The Stone Man was followed by a four-part cycle of dance operas titled The Secret Commonwealth. These four operas; The Changeling and the Bear, The Road, Love and Time, and The Approach of the Mystery, were staged between 1995 and 2000. The first three operas were filmed and broadcast by Kentucky Educational Television.