BIOGRAPHY

Stephen was born and educated in Melbourne, Australia and has staged productions for many of the world’s leading opera companies including Santa Fe Opera, Royal Opera House, The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago,

Glyndebourne Festival and Opéra de Monte Carlo.

His recent work includes Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Santa Fe & Grange Festival), Hänsel und Gretel (Royal College of Music), The Phantom of the Opera (Christmas Theatre Athens, Folketeateret Oslo & Bucharest Opereta), Roméo et Juliette (Estonian National Opera), Flight (Scottish Opera), L’heure espagnol & Gianni Schicchi (Royal Academy of Music), Così Fan Tutte (Central City Opera, Colorado), Madama Butterfly (Danish National Opera), Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi (Hong Kong APA) and Les Deux Enfants – Debussy’s L’enfant prodique and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges (Brisbane Conservatorium). 

Other productions include Rigoletto (Lyric Opera Chicago, Bucharest National Opera), Tosca (Santa Fe Opera), Carmen (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis), La Cour de Célimène (Wexford Festival), Madama Butterfly (Mid Wales Opera), La bohème (British Youth Opera), La traviata (Singapore Lyric Opera), Dovetales (Glyndebourne Jerwood Studio), Die Zauberflöte (Royal Academy of Music) and Alfonso und Estrella (University College Opera).

Stephen has a longstanding relationship with London’s Opera Holland Park where he has staged The Cunning Little Vixen, 

La bohème, Flight, Tosca, Hänsel und Gretel, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, La Fanciulla del West, Cavalleria Rusticana &

I Pagliacci, and the European premiere of Fantastic Mr Fox. Stephen is also a regular director at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he has staged operas by Poulenc, Massenet, Martinu, Debussy, Donizetti, Wolf-Ferrari and Haydn. 

Future productions include Die Fledermaus and Mansfield Park (Royal Northern College of Music), a new season of his production of The Phantom of the Opera (Greece & Middle East) and a revival of his highly acclaimed ‘breakout’ production of Tosca for Opera Holland Park in 2024 to mark the centenary of Puccini’s death. In 2023 Stephen will stage the world premiere of Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton's Itch (based on Simon Mayo's best selling book), and in 2024 return to Scottish Opera and Santa Fe Opera

Stephen began his directing career as an apprentice director at the Glyndebourne Festival and subsequently the Royal Opera, Covent Garden where he assisted on over 30 productions. During this time he also worked as an assistant/associate director at the Royal National Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg and in London’s West End.

As revival director: Madama Butterfly, Tosca and Roméo et Juliette (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Otello (Glyndebourne Festival Opera and San Francisco Opera) and La Rondine (Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House,

Covent Garden, Opéra Monte Carlo, San Francisco Opera and the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse).