David Stout

Baritone

"The baritone David Stout, so impressive in Scottish Opera’s The Burning Fiery Furnace, was commanding and gorgeously lyrical"

The Times

"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."

Bachtrack

"David Stout’s Figaro was assertive, quick-witted and warmly sung, an impressive role debut."

Opera

"David Stout is a formidable Sancho Panza"

The Guardian

"I was moved by David Stout as Massenet’s hapless manager forced into the role of Sancho. His final lament for Quichotte was the best part of the evening."

The Times

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David Stout has rapidly established himself as one of the UK’s most versatile baritones, with a formidable reputation not only for his vocal prowess, but also for his refined acting and charismatic stage presence.

In the 2022/23 season he sings Baron Jaroslav Prus The Makropoulos Affair for Welsh National Opera and Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde for Grange Park Opera. He also sings Bach’s St John Passion for Britten Sinfonia and Bach’s St Matthew Passion for Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.

Recent operatic engagements include Stárek Jenufa (Royal Opera House Covent Garden); Figaro Figaro Gets a Divorce (Theatre Magdeburg); Sancho Pança Don Quichotte (Staatstheater Darmstadt); Barnaba La Gioconda (Grange Park Opera); Ford Falstaff (Grange Park Opera) and Henry Kissinger Nixon in China (Scottish Opera); Bartolo Il barbiere di Siviglia (Den Norske Opera); Harašta The Cunning Little Vixen and Figaro Le nozze di Figaro and Figaro Gets a Divorce (Welsh National Opera), Figaro Figaro Gets a Divorce and Leporello Don Giovanni (Grand Théâtre de Genève); Sancho Pança Don Quichotte (Bregenzer Festspiele); and Dulcamara L’elisir d’amore (Theater St Gallen); Bluebeard Bluebeard’s Castle (English Symphony Orchestra); Posa Don Carlo and Sancho Pança Don Quichotte (Grange Park Opera); Figaro Le nozze di Figaro, Fritz Kothner The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Monterone Rigoletto, Schaunard La bohème, Zaretsky Eugene Onegin and Pish-Tush The Mikado (English National Opera); Marcello La bohème and Frank in Puccini’s Edgar (Scottish Opera); Napoleon in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Gratiano The Merchant of Venice, Papageno Die Zauberflöte, Leporello Don Giovanni, Dr Falke Die Fledermaus, Ping Turandot, Le Dancaïre Carmen, and Buddha Wagner Dream (Welsh National Opera); Angelotti Tosca, Roucher Andrea Chénier, Gratiano The Merchant of Venice, Nikita Das Portrait and Mick Playing Away (Bregenzer Festspiele); Robin Oakapple Ruddigore (Opera North); Roucher Andrea Chénier and Baron Douphol La traviata (Royal Opera House); Don Juan From the House of the Dead (Teatro Massimo di Palermo); Hercule Alceste (Chelsea Opera Group); Axel Oxenstierna in Foroni’s Cristina, regina di Svezia and The Dark Fiddler A Village Romeo and Juliet (Wexford Festival); Alfio Cavalleria Rusticana (Endellion Festival); Donner Das Rheingold, Sandoval Le Duc d’Albe, Paolo Simon Boccanegra and title role Falstaff (all with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé); and Aeneas Dido and Aeneas with the English Concert at the Bristol Old Vic.

Stout’s extensive concert repertoire includes Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in St Paul’s Cathedral, Bach’s St John Passion with Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Verdi Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall; Handel Messiah and Brahms Requiem with the Hallé; Bach St John Passion with Polyphony at St John’s Smith Square, Bach St John Passion with the Aurora Orchestra at King’s Place; and Mozart Requiem with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; as well as Haydn Nelson Mass, Polyphemus Acis and Galatea, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Orff Carmina Burana, Tippett A Child of Our Time, Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony, Walton Belshazzar’s Feast, Rossini Stabat Mater, Elgar The Dream of Gerontius, Mendelssohn Elijah and Britten War Requiem.

His recent recordings include Sullivan’s The Beauty Stone with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Donner Das Rheingold with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé; Sandoval in Donizetti’s Le Duc d’Albe and Bussy in Leoncavallo’s Zazà for Opera Rara; and Wolf’s Eichendorff Lieder.

This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

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

Mascagni's Silvano (Renzo)

Scottish Opera, April 2019

The baritone David Stout, so impressive in Scottish Opera’s The Burning Fiery Furnace, was commanding and gorgeously lyrical

Simon Thompson, The Times, 15 April 2019

David Stout’s robust, handsome baritone was ideal for Renzo

Andrew Clark, Opera magazine, June 2019

David Stout’s Renzo oozed selfless malice...

Ken Walton, The Scotsman, 19 April 2019

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