David Stout has rapidly established himself as one of the UK’s most versatile baritones, with a formidable reputation for not only his vocal prowess, but also for his refined acting and charismatic stage presence. Formerly a Senior Chorister at Westminster Abbey, David grew up in southern Africa, which inspired him to read zoology and go on to teach biology at Epsom College before studying singing with Rudolf Piernay at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Recent highlights include Bluebeard (title role) with the São Paulo Symphony; Wolfram Tannhäuser at the New National Theatre, Tokyo; and Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde for Grange Park Opera. In the 2023/24 season he will sing Bartolo The Barber of Seville for Scottish Opera; Papageno The Magic Flute for English National Opera; and Stárek Jenufa at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and in Antwerp and Ghent.
In recent years, David has gained critical acclaim for his interpretations of Sancho Pança (Bregenz Festival and Staatstheater Darmstadt); Baron Jaroslav Prus The Makropoulos Affair (Národni divadlo Brno and Welsh National Opera); Leporello Don Giovanni and the title role in Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce (Grand Théâtre de Genève); Barnaba La Gioconda, Ford Falstaff and Posa Don Carlo (Grange Park Opera); as well Marcello La bohème for Scottish Opera, Roucher Andrea Chènier (Bregenz Festival and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden); Dulcamara L’elisir d’amore for Theater St Gallen; and Bartolo Il barbiere di Siviglia for Den Norske Opera. Other roles include the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno The Magic Flute, Gratiano The Merchant of Venice, Ping Turandot, Falke Die Fledermaus, and Napoleon War and Peace for Welsh National Opera; Fritz Kothner The Meistersingers of Nürnberg, and Pish-Tush Mikado for English National Opera. The Dark Fiddler A Village Romeo and Juliet, Axel Oxenstjerne Cristina di Svezia, and Douglas Guglielmo Ratcliffe for the Wexford Festival; and Don Pasquale for Longborough Opera Festival.
On the concert stage he has sung Frank Edgar and Renzo Silvano for Scottish Opera; War Requiem at the Brangwyn Hall; The Dream of Gerontius with the Polish National Radio Orchestra in Katowice; he made his Concertgebouw debut as The Dark Fiddler in A Village Romeo and Juliet; Aeneas Dido and Aeneas with the English Concert in Lausanne; Belshazzar’s Feast, Sea Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; The Messiah in Madrid with the Gabrieli Consort; Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and The Apostles with the Hallé Orchestra; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; Mozart’s Requiem with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; and Carmina Burana at the Gustav Mahler Sala and also with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Three Choirs Festival.
Recordings include Haydn’s Creation; Bussy Zazà and Sandoval Le Duc d’Albe for Opera Rara; Donner Das Rheingold (Elder/Hallé); Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Orchestra of the Swan; Rochester in John Joubert’s Jane Eyre, Wolf’s Eichedorff Lieder with Sholto Kynoch; and Sullivan’s The Beauty Stone with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
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Kurwenal, Tristan und Isolde
Grange Park Opera, June 2023
David Stout an impressively strong Kurwenal.
Financial Times. Richard Fairman ★★★★
David Stout did a splendid job of Tristan’s companion Kurwenal.
The Article, Mark Ronan
Tannhäuser (Wolfram)
New National Theatre Tokyo, January - February 2023
“David Stout, in his NNTT debut singing with an incisive intensity and sheer of beauty of phrasing that could serve as a counterweight to his rival’s blustery heroics.”
David Chandler, Opera Magazine
The Makropulos Affair (Baron Jaroslav Prus)
Welsh National Opera, August-December 2022
...and David Stout, with his darkly expressive baritone and lively acting, a strong Baron Jaroslav Prus
Rian Evans, Opera Magazine
Baron Prus (David Stout), his son Janek (Alexander Sprague) and Albert Gregor (Nicky Spence) are all superbly idiomatic and forceful.
Nicholas Kenyon, The Times ★★★★★
In the uniformly strong cast, Nicky Spence and David Stout were excellent as the litigants Albert Gregor and Baron Prus.
Rian Evans, The Guardian ★★★★
David Stout is another fine choice as Baron Jaroslav Prus: always in flux with the devilish little roles he does, in super baritone voice whenever onstage
James Ellis, The Buzz Magazine
David Stout is a well-observed Prus, a tragic grandee, the unwitting cause of his son Janek’s suicide, failed lover, and ultimately (I suppose) loser in the case
Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk
The male roles of Baron Prus and Albert Gregor are taken with vigour and distinctively sung and acted by the always excellent David Stout and Nicky Spence
Mike Smith, The Argus South Wales
La Gioconda (Barnaba)
Grange Park Opera, June 2022
Well-established and versatile baritone David Stout displayed phenomenal stage presence as the thoroughly unpleasant Barnaba, infusing his role with a wonderful, yet subtle, comical flavor. He is a real tour de force in this casting, creeping around the stage with all the malevolence of any pantomime villain. [...] Vocally, however, he was quite magnificent. His sonorous baritone lit up the stage from the moment he entered in Act one, establishing his evil credentials, along with the desires for the woman of his dreams. His “Ah! pescator, affonda l’esca,” in Act two was resplendent, full-toned and displaying beautiful phrasing.
Mike Hardy, Opera Wire
David Stout’s imposing baritone made an impression as the villainous Barnaba
Mark Pullinger, Backtrack
David Stout as Barnaba gives the vocal and histrionic performance of the evening, one of the few singers in the cast who has the resources to sing every note Ponchielli demanded and who plays the melodrama with real abandon.
Séamus Rea, Culture Whisper
In a bravura performance, David Stout also evokes Verdi’s Rigoletto. A limping, jester-like master of ceremonies, he provides the evening’s most consistent singing.
Yehuda Shapiro, The Stage
Our protagonist Barnaba (David Stout) is pure evil, systematically destroying all around him. He’s the spider weaving a web – as is literally manifested in Francis O’Connor’s set design – and it’s impossible to identify with him. [...] The singing, however, is sublime. [...] The chilling finale of Act Three, with all principals and chorus on stage, is a triumph, and everything is perfectly synchronised with the Gascoigne Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Barlow.
Lorien Haynes, The Telegraph ****
[...]crisply characterful sounds regularly slide out of David Stout, hissably villainous as the Inquisition spy Barnaba.
Geoff Brown, The Times
David Stout plays him to the hilt—the outstanding acting and singing performance for me.
Vera Liber, British Theatre Guide
As Barnaba, David Stout completely embraced the character's evil and obsessive nature. Often physically contorted, Stout gave voice to this dramatic character in a mesmerising way. The physical expressiveness combined with some superb singing and a strongly characterful performance. Stout was rarely tempted to distort the musical line for character's sake, which meant that there was a great deal here to enjoy.
Planet Hugill
This superbly well chosen cast brought Ponchielli's masterpiece very much to life, with David Stout as a menacing Barnaba
Mark Ronan, The Article
Jenůfa (Stárek, the Foreman)
Royal Opera House, September 2021
Royal Opera House's Jenůfa won an Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production on Sunday 10th April 2022.
Olivier Awards, 2022
Among the smaller parts, Jacquelyn Stucker’s bright Karolka (Steva’s fiancée), David Stout’s sturdy Foreman at the Mill and Angela Simkin’s Herdswoman stand out...
Hugh Canning, The Times
There’s exceptional casting among the smaller role: Elena Zilio, a Puccini stalwart in the Royal Opera Trittico, as Grandmother Buryjovka; David Stout as an energetic Mill Foreman...
David Nice, The Arts Desk
David Stout sings strongly as the Foreman
Richard Fairman, Financial Times ****
David Stout was an imposing foreman
David Karlin, Bachtrack *****
David Stout’s sure-voiced Foreman dynamically propels the action in Act 1, giving Laca the knife that will rob Jenůfa of the freshness that sustains Števa’s affection, praising her beauty and thus emphasising the cause of Laca’s frustration and fixation.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
David Stout gave an excellent account of the foreman at the mill
Mark Ronan, The Article
David Stout’s Foreman is rugged and richly-toned...
Benjamin Poore, Opera Wire
David Stout makes the small role of the Foreman sound big.
John Allison, Opera Magazine
Falstaff (Ford)
Grange Park Opera, June 2021
David Stout’s Ford sings with a dark and muscular tone. We know that Ford is obsessive, but the focused baritone projected by Stout in the “jealousy” monologue amply confirms it.
John Allison, The Telegraph, 11 June 2021
David Stout’s sturdy Ford
Richard Morrison, The Times, 11 June 2021
David Stout makes an attractive, bumptious and properly irritable Ford
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 19 June 2021
David Stout as [Alice's] husband Ford sings out of his skin throughout, especially at the beginning of Act 2
David Mellor, Daily Mail, 12 June 2021
Grander still were the performances by most of the featured artists. David Stout sang a doughty Ford…
Mark Valencia, Opera Magazine, August 2021
Nixon in China (Henry Kissinger)
Scottish Opera, February 2020
The central roles are all impressively taken… Julia Sporsén’s infinitely touching Pat Nixon, David Stout’s canny Kissinger…
George Hall, The Stage, 19 February 2020
David Stout is blustery and self-regarding as the shady Henry Kissinger
Rowena Smith, The Guardian, 19 February 2020
There is cast-iron evenness among the key players. David Stout’s frenetic portrayal of the buffa-style Kissinger makes him a golden theatrical foil to the stoical composure of Nicholas Lester’s Chou.
Ken Walton, The Scotsman, 21 February 2020
The Cunning Little Vixen (Harasta)
Welsh National Opera, October 2019
...David Stout’s swaggering Poacher.
Rebecca Franks, The Times, 7 October 2019
The ‘flatter’ characters though, of course they offer less scope for individualisation or emotional/psychological depth, were well interpreted, notably by ... David Stout as an attractively transgressive Poacher...
Glyn Pursglove, 8 October 2019
There was much to enjoy too from Peter van Hulle’s lonely Schoolmaster, Wojtek Gierlach’s dignified Parson and David Stout’s unsentimental poacher.
David Truslove, Opera Today, 11 October 2019
Don Quichotte (Sancho Panza)
Bregenzer Festspiele, July 2019
In an opera in which both leads are bass-baritones, it isn’t easy to find a Sancho to complement his master, but Bregenz finds one. Earthily direct, David Stout is another class act, particularly when asked to play devil’s advocate, or to challenge mockery of the knight as an outmoded dinosaur. Besides singing a difficult role with mobile ease, Stout mines Henri Cain’s text splendidly
Opera Magazine, March 2021 (DVD review)
Gábor Bretz is a rich, soulful Don Quichotte and he’s matched for depth and warmth of baritone timbre by David Stout's Sancho
OperaJournal, 5 October 2020 (DVD review)
David Stout was just the sort of baritone needed as Sancho, combining a full, oaky voice with a the buffo charm of a character actor. It falls to Quichotte’s affable sidekick in the end to defend his master’s dreaming idealism from the cruel mockery of the crowd: “Riez, allez, riez” was a passionate rebuke in Stout’s rendition, tearing off his wig as he turned to berate the audience over the swelling of the orchestra.
Eric Simpson, OperaWire, 29 July 2019
Prokofiev's War and Peace (Dolokhov/Denisov/Napoleon/Raevsky)
Welsh National Opera at Royal Opera House, July 2019
Baritone David Stout, so good as both Dolokhov and Denisov in Part One, makes a charismatic impression as Napoleon during and after the Battle of Borodino. Indeed, if you’re looking for hooks on which to hang praise he and Bailey are joint gold medal winners.
Mark Valencia, Bachtrack, 24 July 2019
David Stout truly excelled, in terms of both characterisation and musicianship, as Dolokhov, Denisov, Raevsky and as a steel-backed Napoleon, his voice bursting with pride and defiance in the latter incarnation, but always appealing.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today, 24 July 2019
It is clearly impossible to go into each and every soloist given the roster of singers. But it would be unfair not to admire David Stout’s fine, rich voice in the part of Dolukov (and Denisov, and Napoleon, and Raevsky). Whichever hat he was wearing, he excelled.
Colin Clark, Seen and Heard International, 24 July 2019
David Stout's four roles are the combined stand-out of the evening: his seasoned-rake Dolokhov...
David Nice, The Arts Desk, 24 July 2019
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