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Biography |
by Eugene Chadbourne
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| Stafford Dean is one of the most prominent of England's bass and baritone vocalists, having performed internationally in almost every possible operatic role for that vocal range. He was educated at Epson College and the Royal College of Music, quickly rising to the status of a leading member of Sadler's Wells Opera. During this early period of his career he also made his Covent Garden debut as Masetto in Don Giovanni. He performed his international debut as Giovanni's Leporello in Germany and since then has specialized mainly in the bass and baritone repertoire of Mozart. He has performed with the San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and the houses of Chicago, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, and many other continental cities. He regularly performs at Covent Garden, singing a wide range of roles including Don Alfonso from Cosě Fan Tutte, Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Count Waldner from Arabella, Gessler from William Tell, Bartolo from The Marriage of Figaro, and Swallow from Peter Grimes. Dean has also sung with the Scottish Opera, the Welsh National Opera, the Châtelet in Paris and at the Edinburgh Festival. He sings in the Covent Garden performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia that was released on film in 1980. Dean also appeared in a filmed version of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado in 1982, and Delius' A Village Romeo and Juliet in 1991. His concert repertoire which he has performed with several of the world's leading orchestras includes the requiems of Mozart, Verdi, Dvorák, and Penderecki; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis; Haydn's Creation; Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ and Roméo and Juliet; and Mahler's Eighth Symphony. He has worked with such conductors as Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, Neville Marriner, Jeffrey Tate, and Carlo Maria Giulini. |
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