 g(11696700)a(1393595))
| | Dean Stafford | | basso |  
| He was trained by Gordon Clinton at the Royal College of Music in London then by Howell Glynne and Otakar Kraus in London. Even while student he sang in the Glyndebourne chorus. He first sang with Opera for All (1962-64) then for six seasons at Sadler's Wells, where he debuted as Zuniga in Carmen. He was later heard there as Daland, Sarastro, Sparafucile and as Padre Guardiano, as well as in the 1967 premiere of A Penny for a Song' by Richard Rodney Bennett. After triumphing in the role at the London Coliseum in 1968, Leporello became a mainstay of his repertoire. In 1969, he became a member of London 's Covent Garden Opera (debut as Masetto). Among the roles he created for that House were Narbal in Les Troyens, Figaro in Nozze di Figaro, Publio in La clemenza di Tito, Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia, Bottom in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Don Esteban in Der Zwerg by A.Zemlinsky. He appeared at the Scottish Opera Glasgow (1970) and at the Stuttgart State Opera (1971, Leporello). He sang with the English Opera Group and (1964-78) at Glyndebourne where he was heard as Leporello, Don Alfonso, and as Rochefort in Anna Bolena. 1974 saw him as Mozart's Figaro in Amsterdam and in San Francisco as Leporello. He also guested at Bordeaux and Toulouse, at the State Operas of Hamburg and Munich (1973 as Leporello and 1974 in Tokyo), at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the Opernhaus of Cologne (1975-76), at the Vienna State Opera (1976 as Mozart's Figaro), at the Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg and at the National Opera of Prague. 1976 saw his Met debut as Figaro. On 6 September 1977 he participated at the Edinburgh festival in the premiere of Mary Queen of the Scots by Thea Musgrave. In 1987, in the London premiere of The King Goes Forth to France by Aulis Sallinen. Mozart performances at the Opera of Cologne (1981, 1983, 1985; Leporello and Figaro), 1987 at the Teatro Regio Turin and at the Teatro Comunale Florence, 1985-86 at the Opera Houses of Zurich and Geneva (in operas of Handel). In 1990 he sang Gessler in Guilleaume Tell at Covent Garden and Don Pedro in Béatrice et Bénédict in the Coliseum Theatre; in 1993 Alfonso in Così fan tutte at the Teatro Liceo Barcelona; in 1995, Count Vilém in The Jacobins by Dvorák at the Scottish Opera; in 1996 he sang the king in the premiere of Inéz de Castro by James MacMillan with the Edinburgh festival. His career on the concert stage was no less important than that in opera. His second marriage is to the mezzo-soprano Anne Howells (1941-). Recordings: Philips ('Idomeneo, I Lombardi, Anna Bolena, A Midsummer Marriage), Decca/London (The Rake's Progress, The Burning Fiery Furnace), Denon (L'Enfance du Christ), Pickwick-Video (Don GiovanniGlyndebourne 1977) |
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