Charles Robert Stephens

Baritone

Little Women with New York City Opera
"… a baritone of smooth distinction…"

---Allan Kozinn, New York Times, March 21 2003

Performances of Distinction:
Opera Orchestra of New York
Boston Bel Canto

Hawaii Opera
New York City Opera

Recordings:
Ventadorn, Nonsuch, Harmonia Mundi, Avie

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Mary Ella Collins & Associates
(972) 661-9074

Biography: (As of 7/1/2007)

Program Bio Below

Charles Robert Stephens’s career spans a wide variety of roles and styles in opera and concert music. His performances show “a committed characterization and a voice of considerable beauty.” (Opera News) At the New York City Opera he sang the role of Professor Friedrich Bhaer in the New York premiere of Adamo’s Little Women, and was hailed by The New York Times as a “baritone of smooth distinction.” He has been praised by audiences and critics alike for his “impeccable diction,” communicative abilities and musical sensitivity.
The 2006-7 season brought several new roles including the Villains in Tales of Hoffmann, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Death in The Emperor of Atlantis and a world premiere by Igor Keller in Seattle’s Meany Hall. Reprised roles include Messiah with Portland Baroque, The High Priest in Samson and Delilah with the Alabama Symphony, Capulet with Anchorage Opera, Escamilio with Helena Symphony, Lord Nelson Mass in Modesto, Beethoven’s 9th in Portland and Bend Oregon, Carmina Burana in Seattle and chamber music at the Methow Chamber Music Festival and in Tacoma.
During the 2005-06 season, Mr. Stephens’ engagements included Messiah with the Santa Fe Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Helena Symphony, Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony with the Tacoma Symphony, the title role in Rigoletto with the Spokane Symphony, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly in Birmingham and the Mozart Requiem in Walla Walla. Festival appearances include performances at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and the Methow Festival. In the spring, he returned to New York City as a featured artist with “Regina Resnik Presents.”
Some recent career highlights include the title role in Elijah with the Portland Chamber Orchestra, an engagement at the Spoletto Festival in the Brahms Requiem with the Westminster Choir, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Seattle, Stephano in Viva La Mamma with Tacoma Opera, and appearances in New York City and San Francisco with “Regina Resnik Presents” that featured four world premieres; these performances were also broadcast on cable television.
Mr. Stephens has sung on numerous occasions at Carnegie Hall in a variety of roles with the Oratorio Society of New York (St. Matthew Passion), the Masterworks Chorus (Messiah), and Musica Sacra (Lord Nelson Mass). Recent Carnegie Hall performances with Opera Orchestra of New York have included roles in Otello, with Carlo Bergonzi in the title role, Lucrezia Borgia with Renée Fleming as Lucrezia, and Adriana Lecouvreur with soprano Aprile Millo. Since his debut
as Marcello in La Bohème, Mr. Stephens’ New York City Opera roles include Frank in Die Tote Stadt, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Germont in La Traviata.

Mr. Stephens’ many operatic roles include Rigoletto, Amonasro, Germont, Rodrigo, Count di Luna, Gianni Schicchi, Tonio, Enrico, Sharpless and many others, with leading opera companies throughout the U.S. and abroad. An accomplished recitalist, Mr. Stephens has sung in chamber music performances and recitals throughout the United States in a variety of works. Among Mr. Stephens’ featured concert roles are Elijah, the Brahms Requiem, Messiah, and the Five Mystical Songs of Vaughan Williams with which he marked his Spoletto debut in 2004.
In addition to taking part in several world premieres at Lincoln Center and throughout the country, he has also distinguished himself as a Bach and Handel singer, singing the great cantatas and passions each year with such ensembles as the New York Collegium, the Maryland Handel Festival, the Fairfield Orchestra, and New York’s Sacred Music in a Sacred Space. Mr. Stephens has performed a wide range of works including Bloch’s Sacred Service, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Verdi’s Requiem, and Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with many orchestras including the Hartford Symphony, Colorado Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, American Classical Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Montevideo, Uruguay and Mexico.
Charles Robert Stephens can be heard on the Ventadorn, Nonsuch, and Harmonia Mundi labels; his most recent recording is of the Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs on the Avie label, entitled Heaven to Earth.

Opera Repertoire:

OPERA ROLES:

Adriana Lecouvreur - - Prince de Bouillon

Aida - - Amonasro

Amahl & the Night Visitors - - Melchior

Ariadne auf Naxos - - Harlequin

Capriccio - - Olivier

Carmen - - Escamillo

Cavalleria Rusticana - - Alfio

Cosi fan tutte - - Guglielmo

Curlew River - - The Traveler

Dido and Aeneas - - Aeneas

Die Aegyptische Helena - - Altair

Die tote Stadt - - Frank

Die Zauberfl˘te - - Papageno

Don Carlo - - Rodrigo

Don Giovanni - - Title Role

Falstaff - - Ford

Faust - - Valentin

Gianni Schicchi - - Title Role

Il Barbiere di Siviglia - - Figaro

Il Ritorno dÕUlisse in Patria - - Ulisse

Il Tabarro - - Michel

Il Trovatore - - Count di Luna

Il Viaggio a Rheims - - Alvaro

LÕelisir dÕamore- - Belcore

LÕoracolo- - Win-Shee

La Boh≤me - - Marcello & Schaunard

La Traviata - - Germont

Le Maschere - - Captain Spavento

Le Nozze di Figaro - - Count Almaviva

Les Huguenots - - Count de Nevers

Little Women - -Prof. Bhaer

Lucia di Lammermoor - - Enrico

Madama Butterfly - - Sharpless

Maria Stuarda - - Cecil

Pagliacci - - Silvio & Tonio

Rape of Lucretia - - Junius & Tarquinius

Rigoletto - - Title Role

Samson et Delilah - - High Priest

Tales of Hoffman - - Villians

The Emperor of Atlantis - - Death

The Merry Widow - - Count Danilo

Tosca - - Scarpia

Viva la Mamma - - Stephano

Voice and Piano:

(under construction)

Early Music Performances

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Oratorio:

Bach - - B Minor Mass

Bach - - Ich habe genug

Bach - - Matthäus-Passion

Bach - - Weihnachts-Oratorium

Bach - - Johannes-Passion

Bach - - Magnificat

Beethoven - - Mass in C

Beethoven - - Missa Solemnis

Beethoven - - Ninth Symphony Bloch - - Sacred Service

Brahms - - Requiem Bruckner - - Mass in F minor Dvorak - - Mass in D minor

Dvorak - - Stabat Mater

Faure - - Requiem

Gounod - -Tobie

Handel - - Athalia

Handel - - Alexander’s Feast

Handel - - Dettinger Te Deum

Handel - - Judas Maccabaeus

Handel - - Messiah

Handel - - Samson

Haydn - - Creation

Haydn - - Lord Nelson Mass

Haydn - - The Seasons Mahler - - Songs of a Wayfarer

Massenet - - La Terre Promise

Mendelssohn - - Elijah

Mendelssohn - - Paulus

Monteverdi - - Vespers

Mozart - - Requiem

Orff - - Carmina Burana

Pärt - - St. John Passion

Rossini - - Petite Messe Solonelle

Strauss - - Deutsche Mottette

Stravinski - - Oedipus Rex Vaughan Williams - - Dona Nobis Pacem

Vaughan Williams - - Five Mystical Songs

Vaughan Williams - - Hodie

Vaughan Williams - -Sea Symphony

Verdi - -Requiem

Companies:

SYMPHONY

Alabama Symphony

American Classical Orchestra

Bellevue Philharmonic

Boise Philharmonic

Bremerton Symphony

Fresno Symphony

Hartford Symphony

Helena Symphony

Lake Placid Sinfonia

Nashua Symphony

New Philharmonic of NJ

North Carolina Symphony

Northwest Symphony

Oregon East Symphony

Portland Baroque Orchestra

Portland Chamber Orchestra

Princeton Symphony

Santa Fe Symphony

Spokane Symphony

Tacoma Symphony

Walla Walla Symphony

OPERA

New York City Opera

NYCO National Company

Opera Orchestra of NY

LÕOpera Fran≠aise de NY

Center for Contemporary Opera

Liederkranz Opera

Di Capo Opera

Encompass Opera

Buffalo Opera

New Jersey State Opera

Metro Lyric Opera

Boston Bel Canto

Opera New England

Connecticut Opera

Connecticut Grand Opera

El Paso Opera

Arizona Opera

Minnesota Opera

Opera Grand Rapids

Hawaii Opera

Opera Birmingham

New Orleans Opera

Anchorage Opera

Tampa Bay Opera

Tacoma Opera

Bellevue Opera

CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA

Westminster Choir

Musica Sacra

Ascension Music

Sacred Music in a Sacred Space NYC

Oratorio Society of NY

Canterbury Choral Society

Dessoff Choirs

Keene Choral Festival

Concordia College Chorus and Orchestra

Masterworks Chorus of NJ

Pro Art of NJ

Monmouth County Chorus

University of CT Symphonic Choir and Orchestra

New Haven Chorale

Fairfield County Chorale

Berkshire Choral Festival

Kirkland Choral Society

Portland Symphonic Choir

Seattle Bach Choir

Columbia Chorus MD

EARLY MUSIC

New York Collegium

Boston Camerata

Portland Baroque Orchestra

American Classical Orchestra

Fairfield Orchestra

Clarion Concerts

FESTIVALS

Cascade Music Festival OK Mozart Festival

Methow Music Festival

Spoletto USA

AGO Convention: Philadelphia, Portland Maine

CONCERT RECITAL SERIES

GovernorÕs Chamber Series Seattle Bloedel Mansion- Bainbridge Island

Plymouth Concert Series Seattle Regina Resnik Presents (televised)

Music by the Bay, Fox Island WA

Tacoma Second City Chamber Series

Gardner Museum, Boston

OTHER

Vistafjord Opera Cruise (Greenland, Iceland, Norway)

NY Vocal Arts Ensemble (Russian Tour)

International

Pro Opera Montevideo (Uruguay)

Orchestra National di Montevideo

National Theater of Santo Domingo

National Theater of Taiwan

Orchestra National de Mexico

Reviews:

Brahms Requiem with Westminster Choir, Spoletto USA
Stephens' fine, dark baritone voice easily filled the hall, and his enunciation was superb. --- William Thomas Walker, The Classical Voice of North Carolina, June 8, 2005

Mackris V. O’Reilly, World Premiere, Meany Hall, Seattle
Charles Robert Stephens upended the drama…thanks to his abundant musicality and ability to sell the role…Winningly sung and dramatized by Stephens.

---Regina Hackett, Seattle Post Intelligencer, January 15, 2007

Little Women with New York City Opera
… a baritone of smooth distinction…
---Allan Kozinn, New York Times, March 21 2003

Five Mystical Songs with Westminster Choir, Spoletto USA
A fine baritone named Charles Robert Stephens made luscious sounds in those, and his style and sense of legato, also clear diction, made them memorable. His tone is forward, every note is placed right in the centre and his diction is admirably clear.
---Robert Jones, Charleston Post and Courier, June 5, 2004

Don Carlo with Boston Bel Canto
New York City Opera baritone Charles R
---Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix, September 25, 2001

Il Trovatore with Boston Bel Canto
In the role of Count di Luna Charles Robert Stephens gave a balanced, daring, nuanced performance. His aria "Il Balen" started with intimate cantabile, matching the brooding clarinets and horns; then Stephens opened out, witnessing the tempest of love in di Luna's heart. Here is a singer with access to his emotions and with the delivery system to get them across.
---Susan Larson, Boston Globe, September 28, 1999

Rigoletto with Spokane Symphony
Baritone Charles Robert Stephens was a powerful force in the title role as the hunchback jester…
---Travis Rivers, Spokesman Review, March 26, 2006

Faust with Pro Opera Montevideo
The American baritone Charles Robert Stephens had a voice of magnificent natural quality, an excellent technique, clear, impeccable French diction (one could understand everything) an absolute musicality and a noble expressive presence for the character. He was the best Valentin I have ever heard.
---Wáshington Roldán, El Pais (Montevideo, Uruguay), June 28, 1988, translated

Elijah with Portland Chamber Orchestra
Charles Robert Stephens gave the standout performance in the title role… he sang Elijah with all the requisite might and nuanced expressiveness in an agile, supple voice equally strong in all registers…
---James McQuillen, The Oregonian, June 7, 2005

Cav/Pag with New Jersey State Opera
…his performance showed a committed characterization and a voice of considerable beauty…
---Donald Westwood, Opera News, December 9, 1995

L’Oracolo with Westchester Opera
Charles Robert Stephens as the ‘Oracle’, now with long white beard and hair, was solemn and dignified in his acting; his voice seemed to take on and even greater depth and resonance, which during certain moments filled the theater with gorgeous sound.
---Allan Kozinn, New York Times, May 14, 1990

Bach Cantatas with American Classical Orchestra
Charles Robert Stephens, whose resonant sound can expand easily to dramatic opera arias, was a model of baroque inflection, vocally flexible, with expert German diction and masterful breath control.
---John S. Sweeney, The Advocate, November 24, 1999

Lucia di Lammermoor with Connecticut Opera
Baritone Charles Robert Stephens, a first rate Enrico, sang with rhythmic drive and bite that reinforced his dramatic presence. His rough, commanding authority, in contrast with Lucia’s softness, helped make their Act 2 duet all the more poignant. He and Dunleavy made the conductor’s slowish tempos sound expansive and well paced, bringing out all the expressive nuances in their lines.
---Gilbert H. Mott, Opera News, February 18, 1995

Special Music Programs:

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Mary Ella Collins & Associates
(972) 661-9074