Stephen Langridge

He went on to work with innovative small-scale companies such as Opera Factory (which he joined as Assistant Director) and Pimlico Opera, as well as the Royal Opera House, Opera North, and Scottish Opera. During this time he developed an interest in devised music theatre and workshopping new work with composers and librettists.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Stephen directed a number of education projects at Glyndebourne, including two youth operas commissioned by Glyndebourne for the main stage – Misper (1997) and Zoë (2000).

Pursuing his passion for contemporary music, Stephen has directed a number of Birtwistle operas including the acclaimed world premiere of The Minotaur at the Royal Opera House and The Io Passion at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Further engagements around the world include Madama Butterfly (Norwegian National Opera), Lohengrin (Royal Swedish Opera), Don Carlo (Teatro Nacional de São Carlos), La damnation de Faust (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Otello (Salzburg Festival and Rome) and La bohème and Hippolyte et Aricie (Dutch National Touring Opera).

Productions that Stephen has directed at Gothenburg Opera include Elektra, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet.

Stephen is well known for his education, development, and training work, including projects in France, Spain, Germany, Finland, Holland, Sweden, Senegal, South Africa, and throughout the UK. He is also well known for staging theatre in unusual settings, including Bernstein’s West Side Story and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar with large casts of prisoners in various British high-security prisons, and Ngoma, a multi-racial music and theatre project in South African townships. For many years he has been working with Share Music Sweden, devising music theatre with integrated groups of people of different abilities.