In recent years, Stephen Medcalf has established himself as one of the most talented English stage-directors, which has seen him invited in various prestigious opera companies and festivals, including Chatelet Theatre Musical and Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Communale di Ferrara, Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos Lisbon, West Australian Opera, Opera Queensland, Victoria State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opera North, Opera Northern Ireland and the Wexford Festival.

In his career, Stephen played a major part in building the scope and standing of companies. For six years, he was Director of Productions at the English Touring Opera , and currently he is Resident Producer of the Opera Course of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama , which is now recognised as one of the best of its kind in Europe .

Among his most notable productions are Le nozze di Figaro, conducted by Bernard Haitink KBE, for the opening of the new Glyndebourne opera house in 1994, which was televised and released on DVD. He also directed productions of Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberfloete for John Eliot Gardiner and DG Archiv , also released on video. For the Wexford Festival , he directed productions of Mascagni ’s Il piccolo Marat and Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night , both unanimously acclaimed as the outstanding staging of their respective seasons. For the Theatre des Champs Elysees he directed a controversial high-tech production of Handel’s Ezio and his production of L’Elisir d’Amore , originally for English Touring Opera in 1993, was set in the American middle West, and seems to have become a benchmark production, successfully revived for West Australia and Victoria State Opera and Opera Queensland .

Other significant productions have included The Flying Dutchman for Opera North ; Tosca, Otello, Aida , Turandot for Mid-Wales Opera; Don Giovanni, Orfeo and Eurydice, Rigoletto and a contemporary Marriage of Figaro for English Touring Opera, La Traviata for Opera Northern Ireland and his recent La Scala debut with a new production of Pique Dame.

Other recent productions include Faust and Madama Butterfly for Mid-Wales Opera , The Medium for Opera Bergen , Norway, Il Re Pastore at St John’s Smith Square , London and various productions for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama , among them the world premiere of a new piece by Andrew Schultz, Going into Shadows and most recently the highly acclaimed production of Handel’s Susannah. He directed the highly acclaimed production of Delius ’ A Village Romeo and Juliet at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari where he returned last summer for Il flauto magico and Aida which both received rave reviews. His production of Don Giovanni with Mid-Wales Opera then toured the UK .

His future engagements include Carmen with the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari , and then Entfuhrung aus dem Serail - a co-production between Teatro Lirico, Cagliari and Ancona.

(2005)