Stephen Varcoe

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Stephen Christopher Varcoe (born May 19, 1949 in Lostwithiel , Cornwall ) is an English opera singer ( bass baritone ).

Life

Varcoe attended Canterbury Cathedral Choir School , Canterbury's King's School and studied at King's College , where he sang in the King's College Choir under David Willcocks . In 1977 he received a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation .

Varcoe stepped u. a. with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra , the Scottish Chamber Orchestra , the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France , the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra and the Hanover Band and worked with conductors such as Frans Brüggen , John Eliot Gardiner , Richard Hickox , Christian Lindberg , Charles Mackerras , Jean-Claude Malgoire , Marc Minkowski , Arnold Östman , Trevor Pinnock , Joshua Rifkin , Gennadi Roshdestvensky and Yan Pascal Tortelier .

As an opera singer, Varcoe u. a. in Joseph Haydn's L'infedelta delusa in Antwerp, Claude Debussy's Fall of The House of Usher in Lisbon and London, John Tavener's Mary of Egypt at the Aldeburgh Festival , Jacopo Peris Euridice in the Drottningholm Palace Theater , Gustav Holsts Savitri , Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri .

As a lieder singer he has given recitals with works by Gerald Finzi and Arthus Sommervell with the pianist Ian Burnside , by Franz Schubert ( Winterreise ) with Eugene Asti and with Graham Johnson , by Johannes Brahms , Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf with Johnson and by Percy Grainger with Penelope Thwaites .

Varcoe recorded about 130 CDs. He sang works by Purcell , Handel and Bach under John Eliot Gardiner , Richard Hickox and Sigiswald Kuijken , by Mozart under Neville Marriner , by Fauré under John Rutter , by Holst under Richard Hickox, by Richard Strauss under Roger Norrington , by Arnold Schönberg under Robert Craft and by Igor Stravinsky under Robert Craft.

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personal data
SURNAME Varcoe, Stephen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Varcoe, Stephen Christopher (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English opera singer (bass baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Lostwithiel , Cornwall