Mark Stone

Baritone Mark Stone 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. 

Recent operatic engagements include his first foray into Wagner roles last season with acclaimed role debuts as Gunther in Götterdämmerung at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Alberich Das Rheingold at the Longborough Festival. He also sang Papageno Die Zauberflöte with the Welsh National Opera and Valencia Palau de les Arts; Balstrode Peter Grimes at Queensland Opera, Australia; the King in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence at the Mariisnky Theatre, St Petersburg and a return to the Philadelphia Opera for Protector in Benjamin’s Written on Skin.

He made a magnificent role debut as Wozzeck in Geneva in 2017 in David McVicar’s production, and other roles include Don Giovanni for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, New Zealand Opera, English National Opera and the Toyko Symphony Orchestra; Valmont (Francesconi’s Quartett) and Mountjoy (Britten’s Gloriana) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Il Conte (Le nozze di Figaro) for Welsh National Opera, Hamburg Opera and in Tampere, Finland; Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus) and Count (Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce) for Welsh National Opera; Ned Keene (Peter Grimes) with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski and at the Beijing International Festival, and a tour to the U.S. as the Ferryman in Netia Jones’ acclaimed production of Britten’s Curlew River. His many roles at the English National Opera have included Guglielmo, Marcello (La bohème), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Chou-en-Lai (Nixon in China) and Prince Yamadori in Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly.

In the U.S. he has appeared regularly at the Philadelphia Opera where his roles include Ford (Falstaff), Germont Pere (La Traviata), the title role in Gianni Schicchi, and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte). He has also sung Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) in Santa Fe.

Highlights of the 19/20 season include Alice's Adventures Underground (The White Night) at the Royal Opera House; Nixon in China (Nixon) at the Hannover Staatsoper; La Boheme (Marcello) at the Copenhagen Opera Festival.

A distinguished concert artist, last season he sang West Side Story with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Sir Antonio Pappano; St Matthew Passion with the Orchestre National de Lyon and Kenneth Montgomery, Thomas Adès’ mammoth Totentanz with Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony and Orchestre de Paris, a piece with which he is synonymous, having sung it with Thomas Adès and the New York Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Other concert highlights include Brahms’ Requiem with Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne, Britten’s War Requiem with Xian Zhang in Milan and Jaap van Zweden and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Helsinki Philharmoni and CBSO with John Storgårds, and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and James Judd.

An acclaimed exponent of new music, he has sung Auerbach’s Requiem with Vladimir Jurowski and the Dresden Staatskapelle, Jeths’ Hotel de Pekin with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Diepenbrock’s Les Elfes with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, MacMillan’s John Passion at King’s College, Cambridge, Gerald Barry’s Beethoven with the Britten Sinfonia and Martin Suckling’s Candlebird with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

His recordings include Eugene Onegin (extracts) with Pappano (EMI), Les Troyens with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis (LSO Live), Billy Budd with the LSO and Harding (Virgin / EMI); Bellini’s La Straniera with the LPO and Parry (Opera Rara) and Mozart arias with the Classical Opera Company (Sony BMG). His solo recital discs - Quilter songs (Sony BMG), ‘English Love’, the complete Butterworth Songbook and the complete Delius Songbook (Stone Records) – have all received widespread praise.

Last updated - May 2020