CHARLES ROBERT STEPHENS, baritone

Baritone Charles Robert Stephens is well known to Helena audiences for his outstanding performances with Maestro Scott and the Helena Symphony.  He last appeared as “Escamillo” in Bizet’s Carmen and returns this Season to perform the role of “Belcore” in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love.

The 2006-2007 Season brought several new roles to Mr. Stephens, 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.

Mr. Stephens’s career spans a wide variety of roles and styles in opera and concert music.  He has been praised by audiences and critics alike for his “impeccable diction,” communicative abilities and musical sensitivity.  His 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.  His performances show “a committed characterization and a voice of considerable beauty.” (Opera News)  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, 43 performances as “Germont” in La Traviata, and “Professor Friedrich Bhaer” in the New York premiere of Adamo’s Little Women, in which he was hailed by The New York Times as a “baritone of smooth distinction.”

An accomplished recitalist, Mr. Stephens has sung at the Methow Chamber Music Festival and in chamber music performances and recitals throughout the United States in a variety of works.  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. 

On the concert stage, Mr. Stephens engagements have included Messiah, Elijah, Lord Nelson Mass, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Carmina Burana, St. Matthew Passion, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Mozart’sRequiem,Bloch’s Sacred Service, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, the Five Mystical Songs of Vaughan Williams,in which he made his Spoleto Festival debut, anda return engagement at the Spoleto Festival in Brahms’ German Requiem with the Westminster Choir.   He has performed 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. Mr. Stephens maintains an active voice studio in Seattle and teaches at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.