Stéphane Degout © Jean-Baptiste Millot
A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon and member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Lyon, Stéphane Degout quickly came to international attention in his debut as Papageno at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Since then, he has appeared on the world’s best operatic stages, notably the Opéra de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra-Comique, Berlin Staatsoper, la Monnaie, Theater an der Wien, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Lyric Opera Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, and Opernhaus Zurich, Tokyo and Los Angeles and toured at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and to Yokohama. His numerous festival appearances include Salzburg, Saint Denis, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence.
Stéphane Degout begins the 2023/24 season at the Grand Théâtre de Genève with Don Carlos; he will continue at the Opéra-Comique for L'Autre voyage after Schubert, at the Opéra National du Rhin for Guercoeur and at the Théâtre du Capitole for Eugène Onéguine. He has also given numerous recitals and concerts, notably with Pygmalion - chœur & orchestre, the Orchestre de Paris, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra y Coro Nacionales de Espane, the orchestra of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and the Gulbenkian Orchestra.
Notable roles have included Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte), le Comte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Oreste (Iphigénie en Tauride), Wolfram (Tannhaüser), Raimbaud (Le Comte Ory), Dandini (Cenerentola), Thésée (Hippolyte et Aricie), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), Albert (Werther), Frank et Fritz (Die tote Stadt), Chorèbe (Les Troyens), Valentin (Faust), Rodrigue (Don Carlos), Ford (Falstaff), and the title roles in Thomas’ Hamlet, Conti’s Don Chisciotte, and both Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, and has proven to be one of the leading interpreters of Debussy’s Pelléas role. He has recently added Berg’s Wozzeck title role to his repertoire.
As a recitalist, Stéphane Degout’s has worked a lot on French melody and German Lieder under the guidance of Ruben Lifschitz. Stéphane Degout is renowned for the finesse and sensitivity he conveys in his interpretations; he has given recitals across Europe with accompanists Alain Planès, Simon Lepper and Cédric Tiberghien while on tour (in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Berlin, Brussels, New York, etc.). In concert, he has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. At the Monnaie he sang Fauré’s Requiem and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder under Alain Altinoglu, works which he has also sung with the Orchestre National de France under Emmanuel Krivine. His collaborations also include René Jacobs, John Nelson, Nathalie Stutzmann, Raphaël Pichon, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Barbara Hannigan.
His dedication to the art has seen him perform numerous roles in operatic creations such as Benoît Mernier’s La Dispute and Philippe Boesmans’ Au Monde and Pinocchio. He has performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as The King in George Benjamin’s new production Lessons in Love and Violence – a role which was written specifically for his voice. This production’s recording was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the “Best Opera Recording” category.
Stéphane Degout has recorded Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem (piano version), Fauré’s Requiem, la Bohème for Deutsche Grammophon, several CDs dedicated to the pieces from the French melody and Lieder repertoire: ‘Mélodies’ for Naïve, ‘Histoires Naturelles’ and ‘Poèmes d’un Jour’ for B Records (ffff rating from Télérama), ‘Harmonies du Soir’ (Debussy), ‘Maurice Ravel’ for Harmonia Mundi. His collaboration with Harmonia Mundi has also resulted in ‘Enfers’ with Pygmalion under Raphael Pichon (Diamant from Opéra Magazine, ffff from Télérama, Choc de Classica, International Opera Awards in the catégory solo recital recording), This collaboration is renewed with the upcoming release of the album ‘Mein Traum’ for which a concert tour is planned.
In 2012, he was appointed ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ and additionally was also named ‘Lyrical Artist of the Year’ at the Victoires de la Musique Classique awards ceremony, an accolade which he won again in 2019. He was chosen as the “2018 Musical Personality of the Year” by the Association Professionnelle de la Critique de théâtre, musique et danse. He is Awarded ‘Male Singer of the Year’ at 2022 International Opera Awards
