Charles Robert Stephens has enjoyed a career spanning a wide variety of roles and styles in opera and concert music. His performances have shown “a committed characterization and a voice of considerable beauty.” (Opera News, 1995) 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.” Other New York City Opera roles since his debut as Marcello in 1995 include Frank in Die Tote Stadt, Sharpless in Madame Butterfly, and Germont in La Traviata. He has sung on numerous occasions at Carnegie Hall in a variety of roles with Opera Orchestra of New York, the Oratorio Society of New York, the Masterworks Chorus, and Musica Sacra.
Now based in Seattle, he has sung with Seattle Symphony, Tacoma and Spokane Symphony and Opera Companies, Portland Chamber Orchestra and others. He joins the roster of Seattle Opera in 2010 for the premiere of Amelia by Daron Hagen. Upcoming performances include two concerts with Stephen Stubbs: Handel’s Esther and Monteverdi Vespers a return engagement with Seattle Symphony in “Opera Festival,” a debut with Boston Early Music Festival in Steffani’s Niobe, Queen of Thebes and a return engagement with the American Classical Orchestra as Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at St. John the Divine in NYC.
On the international stage he has sung Rigoletto at Taipei’s National Theater, Sharpless in Santo Domingo, Germont and Valentin (Faust) in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Montano (Otello) in Mexico City. Concert tours have taken him to France, Russia, and Canada. Mr. Stephens has worked closely with composers in the preparation and performance of new works for the concert hall and the stage, taking part in many premieres at Lincoln Center and as part of “Regina Resnik Presents” television. A native of New London, Connecticut, Mr. Stephens received his training at the University of Connecticut, Boston University, the Goldovsky Opera Institute, and the Santa Fe Opera.
