BIO

Recent and forthcoming engagements include Captain The Greek Passion (Opera North)‚ Sweeney Todd (title role) and Mr Peachum The Threepenny Opera (Northern Ireland Opera), Stranger Mamzer Bastard (ROH)‚ Le Gouverneur Comte Ory (Dorset Opera and Chelsea Opera Group)‚ Captain of the Pinafore, Lieutenant Yeoman of the Guard, Don Alhambra Gondoliers and Sir Roderic Murgatroyd Ruddigore (National G & S Opera Company), Entertainer Orango (Rostropovich Festival, Moscow)‚ Iago Otello (Kent Opera)‚ Speaker The Magic Flute (English National Opera)‚ Anna Fewmore in the world premiere of Mark Simpson’s Pleasure (Opera North and ROH)‚ Fillipovich A Dog’s Heart directed by Simon McBurney (ENO/Complicite) and Walsingham in Damon Albarn’s Doctor Dee directed by Rufus Norris (Manchester International Festival and ENO)‚ The Devil Inside by Stuart MacRae (Scottish Opera/ Music Theatre Wales)‚ Judge Turpin Sweeney Todd (Welsh National Opera) and Don Alfonso Cosi fan tutte (WNO‚ Bury Court Opera and West Green Opera).

Steven already had a career as a Trade Mark Attorney and was studying singing privately with Margaret Hyde‚ when he was awarded a Countess of Munster Scholarship to study at the National Opera Studio in London. Understudies of leading roles for both Glyndebourne Festival and Welsh National Opera followed and then he sang Don Alfonso Cosi fan tutte and Nick Shadow Rake’s Progress for Opera 80 (now English Touring Opera). Since then Steven has sung with the major opera companies and orchestras in the UK.

Roles with English National Opera include the Don Alfonso Cosi fan tutte‚ Paolo Simone Boccanegra‚ the Count and Figaro Marriage of Figaro‚ Gregor Mittenhofer in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers directed by Fiona Shaw (Young Vic Theatre/ENO)‚ Calchus La belle Hélène and many others. He has appeared as Alidoro La Cenerentola and Coyle Owen Wingrave (Royal Opera House)‚ Guglielmo Cosi fan tutte‚ Marcello La bohème‚ Chorèbe Les Troyens‚ Ford Falstaff‚ title role Don Giovanni and Count Marriage of Figaro (Scottish Opera)‚ Narrator/Pangloss/Martin Candide (RNCM)‚ and the title role in a highly acclaimed production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd for Opera North‚ where he has also appeared as Sharpless Madama Butterfly and Benoit/Alcindoro La bohème. Roles with Carl Rosa Opera include the Pirate King Pirates of Penzance‚ the Mikado‚ Captain Corcoran HMS Pinafore and Lord Chancellor Iolanthe. Steven made his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1994 as Nick Shadow Rake’s Progress and has since returned for Birtwhistle’s The Second Mrs. Kong‚ Leporello Don Giovanni (televised by Channel 4)‚ Coyle Owen Wingrave‚ Minskman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight (commissioned by Glyndebourne and televised by Channel 4)‚ Balstrode Peter Grimes‚ Pizarro Fidelio (televised at The Proms by BBC) and Prus The Makropoulos Case. He has appeared as Pirate King (RTÉ Concert Orchestra)‚ Sir Roderick Murgatroyd Ruddigore(Opera North and at the Barbican Theatre)‚ Sir Richard Cholmondeley The Yeomen of the Guard with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra‚ the Philharmonia Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by John Wilson.

Engagements abroad include the title role Sweeney Todd in Australia‚ Spencer Coyle Owen Wingrave (Théâtre du Capitole‚ Toulouse)‚ Papageno The Magic Flute (Dublin)‚ Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s Susanna (Nantes)‚ Pizarro Fidelio (Châtelet)‚ Prus Makropoulos Case (Lyon‚ New York and Berlin)‚ Candide (Paris‚ La Scala Milan and Tokyo) directed by Robert Carsen and King The Love for Three Oranges‚ Leporello Don Giovanni and Shadow Rake’s Progress (New Israeli Opera).

In 2001 he took part in the film Tomorrow La Scala for the BBC/Home Movies which appeared at the Cannes Film Festival. He played an opera singer‚ Miles‚ singing the role of Sweeney Todd in a prison. Theatre work also includes Parade (Donmar Warehouse)‚ Oedipus (National Theatre with Ralph Fiennes) and After Aida (Old Vic with Ian Charleson and Richard Griffiths).

Steven has an extensive concert repertoire and has performed in all the major concert halls in the UK. For the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall he has performed in Tippett’s The Mask of Time (also in Stockholm) and in Elgar’s The Apostles.