About

Stephen Costello has been hailed as ‘a prodigiously gifted singer whose voice makes an immediate impact’ (Associated Press). The Philadelphia-born tenor quickly established a reputation as a ‘first-class talent’ (Opera News) after coming to national attention in 2007, when, aged 26, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut on the company’s season-opening night. Two years later, Stephen won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, and he has since appeared at many of the world’s most important opera houses and music festivals, including the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris, Deutsche Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Semperoper Dresden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Hamburgische Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Arena di Verona, Salzburger Festspiele, Bregenzer Festspiele, and Glyndebourne Festival. As Opera News noted in a recent ‘Spotlight’ double-page spread, ‘the all-American tenor’ is now ‘at the top of his game’.

In the 2024/25 season, Stephen will return to the Metropolitan Opera for Duca di Mantua Rigoletto and Greenhorn Moby Dick, as well as singing Roméo Roméo et Juliette at Opernhaus Zürich and the title role of Don Carlo at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In concert, he will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Houston Symphony, he will sing a gala concert with Kristine Opolais in Saltillo, Mexico and a series of recitals alongside pianist Anthony Manoli with Arizona Opera.

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Last season saw Costello sing Don José Carmen at Bayerische Staatsoper, Rodolfo La bohème at The Metropolitan Opera (including his 100th performance at the Met), Verdi’s Requiem at Opernhaus Zürich, Rodolfo La bohème with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia and at the Vail Festival and his debut in the role of Cavaradossi in Tosca, first in concert with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and then on the stage at National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan.

He has appeared at many of the world’s most important opera houses and music festivals, including the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Semperoper Dresden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Arena di Verona, Salzburger Festspiele, Bregenzer Festspiele, and Glyndebourne Festival.

In March 2018 Stephen opened a memorial concert at the Royal Opera House in honour of Dmitri Hvorostovsky, singing alongside, amongst others, Anna Netrebko, Elīna Garanča and Angela Gheorghiu.

In addition to winning the 2009 Richard Tucker Award and receiving further grants from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, Stephen won First Prize in the 2006 George London Foundation Awards Competition, First Prize and Audience Prize in the Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, and First Prize in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition. Stephen is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts.