Stephen Richardson

Biography

Stephen Richardson was born in Liverpool and studied at Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music. He has created roles in many important contemporary works including Thomas Adès’s The Tempest (Royal Opera House); Tan Dun’s Marco Polo (The Netherlands Opera) and Tea (Suntory Hall‚ Tokyo); Gerald Barry’s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit and The Intelligence Park; John Tavener’s Eis Thanaton‚ Resurrection‚ The Apocalypse and Fall and Resurrection (City of London Sinfonia‚ St Paul’s Cathedral); and the British premiere of Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale (ENO).

Apart from his personal commitment to performing New Music, Stephen Richardson performs traditional repertoire regularly. For ENO he has also sung Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier) and Daland (Der fliegende Holländer). He has appeared in Billy Budd at the ROH Covent Garden and L’Opéra de Paris, Bastille. He has made his debut at Opera Australia in the title rôle of Verdi’s Falstaff and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. In 2007 he performed Adès’ Powder Her Face at the New Mariinsky Concert Hall in St.Petersburg.

Recent engagements include Kaspar in Der Freischütz (Opéra de Rennes); Don Quichotte in Fénelon’s Le Chevalier Imaginaire (Ensemble Intercontemporain)‚ Monterone in Rigoletto‚ Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro (Grange Park Opera) and X in Powder her Face (London Symphony Orchestra concert/Thomas Adès). Further roles include Count Waldner in Arabella‚ Mamirov in The Enchantress‚ Daland‚ Claggart‚ Fasolt‚ Osmin‚ Colline‚ Commendatore‚ Sparafucile‚ Swallow‚ Timur‚ and Sir Morosus in Die schweigsame Frau. He appears regularly with Netherlands Opera‚ De Vlaamse Opera‚ Opera National de Paris‚ Teatro alla Scala‚ Oper der Stadt Bonn‚ Istanbul Festival‚ Lyric Opera of Chicago‚ Salzburg Festival and Nationale Reisopera.

In 2012 he performed the role of Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Concert repertoire includes Anubis/Death of Kong in Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs Kong (Royal Festival Hall/ Martyn Brabbins)‚ Hansel and Gretel (BBC Concert Orchestra)‚ Messiah (Carnegie Hall/ Trevor Pinnock)‚ Oedipus Rex (BBC Stravinsky Festival/ Sir Andrew Davis)‚ Nixon in China (London Symphony Orchestra) and Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! (Cleveland Orchestra and London Sinfonietta/ Knussen).

Recordings include Where the Wild Things Are‚ title role in Goehr’s Death of Moses (Unicorn Kanchana)‚ Purcell’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary (DG Archiv)‚ Stravinsky’s The Flood and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Philips) and Albert Herring (Chandos).