Stephen Gadd

Operatic baritone Stephen Gadd (born 1964) has made numerous appearances at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and he broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio. After graduating in Engineering from St. John's College, Cambridge, Stephen studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. He was twice a finalist in the Plàcido Domingo International Singing Competition, and among other numerous awards he won the 1990 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship. Since then he has performed with major orchestras in concerts throughout Europe and the Orient.

Gadd's opera performances have included Paolo in Schreker's Die Gezeichneten for the Salzburg Festival, der Führer der Prévôté in Cardillac for Opéra de Paris, Germont Père in La Traviata for Den Norske Opera, Oslo, Lysiart (Euryanthe) for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Ping (Turandot) for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Balstrode (Peter Grimes) for Opéra de Montpellier, Valentin (Faust) for L'Opéra National du Rhin, Renato (Un Ballo in Maschera) for English National Opera, Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor) Riccardo (I Puritani) and Yeletsky (The Queen of Spades) for Opéra de Nantes, Conte di Luna (Il Trovatore), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Germont Père (La Traviata) and Yeletsky (The Queen of Spades) - all for Scottish Opera, de Siriex in Fedora for Opera Holland Park, Marcello (La Bohème) for the Beijing International Festival, Silvio (I Pagliacci) and Scarpia (Tosca) at the Festival de la Vézère, Escamillo (Carmen) in Hong Kong, Ferryman (Britten's Curlew River) for Opéra de Rouen, and the Duke in Rachmaninov's The Miserly Knight for BBC Radio 3.

His concert repertoire is equally diverse, including Britten’s War Requiem, Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Brahms's Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Tippett's A Child of Our Time, Handel's Messiah, and Orff's Carmina Burana. Stephen's recordings for Deutsche Grammophon include Mozart’s Krönungsmesse and Vesperae Solenne Confessore and Purcell’s Dioclesian, and for Hyperion he has recorded Hamish MacCunn’s opera Jeannie Deans. He has also recorded highlights from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly & La Bohème with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and his wife, soprano Claire Rutter.

Gadd's future work (as at February 2007) includes the title role in Verdi's Macbeth for Glyndebourne on Tour, Escamillo in Carmen for Welsh National Opera, and Melot in Tristan und Isolde for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Baden Baden Festival.