BIOGRAPHY
Mark Stone is an English helden baritone, acclaimed for his performances of Wagnerian roles, such as Alberich in Das Rheingold and Siegfried at Longborough Festival Opera, Wotan in Die Walküre for Trondheim Symfoniorkester, and Gunther in Götterdämmerung at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Future important Wagnerian role debuts include his Klingsor for Hamburgische Staatsoper and the title role in Der fliegende Holländer for Trondheim Symfoniorkester. He works extensively in Germany (Hamburgische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Hannover) and the USA (Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia) where he is also renowned for his performances of modern works such as the title role in Nixon in China and the world premiere of Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly.
This season sees Mark sing il Mostro in Salvatore Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone conducted by Kent Nagano at the Hamburische Staatsoper and The Protector in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin both under Marc Albrecht at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer himself. He also returns to Longborough Festival Opera to sing his first complete Ring cycles as Alberich. On the concert platform Mark’s year includes Bruckner’s Third Mass with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Thomas Zehetmair, Sea Symphony with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Leonard Slatkin and Carmina Burana with the Orchestre de Paris and Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
Other recent highlights include the title role in Wozzeck for Grand Théâtre de Genève, Wotan in Die Walküre for Grimeborn, for which he won the Offie Award for best performance in an opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly for Welsh National Opera, the White Knight in Gerald Barry’s Alice's Adventures Underground at the Royal Opera House, Balstrode in Peter Grimes at Opera Queensland and the The King in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence at the Mariisnky Theatre.
A distinguished concert artist, who is an acclaimed exponent of new music, Mark has sung Thomas Ades’s Totentanz with the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by the composer, a piece for which he has become synonymous, having debuted it with the New York Philharmonic, and subsequently performed it with the Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Danish National Symphony, and Finnish Radio Symphony. Mark also sang the world premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Requiem with Vladimir Jurowski and the Dresden Staatskapelle, Gerald Barry’s Beethoven with the Britten Sinfonia and West Side Story with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.
His many recordings include Thomas Ades’s Totentanz with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon) which was nominated for a Grammy Award, the Grammy-Award-winning Les Troyens with Sir Colin Davis (LSO Live), the Grammy-Award-winning Billy Budd with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding (Virgin/EMI), Eugene Onegin (extracts) with Sir Antonio Pappano (EMI), Bellini’s La Straniera with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and David Parry (Opera Rara) and Mozart arias with the Classical Opera Company (Sony BMG). His solo recital discs – including Quilter Songs (Sony BMG), the complete Butterworth songbook and the complete Delius songbook (Stone Records) – have all received widespread praise.
Mark was born in London and studied Mathematics at King's College Cambridge and singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1998 he was awarded the Decca Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards.