Stephen Milling

Danish bass Stephen Milling ranks among the world’s foremost interpreters of Wagner’s repertoire. Particularly strongly associated with the roles of Hagen (Götterdämmerung) and Gurnemanz (Parsifal), performances have taken him to the major international stages including Bayreuth Festival (Kirill Petrenko), Wiener Staatsoper (Sir Simon Rattle), Osterfestspiele Salzburg (Christian Thielemann), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Sir Antonio Pappano), to Teatro Real (Pablo Heras-Casado) and Deutsche Oper Berlin (Axel Kober). Other Wagner highlights have included Hunding (Die Walküre) at the Metropolitan Opera (Valery Gergiev) and in concert with London Philharmonic Orchestra (Vladimir Jurowski), Daland (Der fliegende Holländer) at Bayerische Staatsoper and König Marke (Tristan und Isolde) at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Daniel Barenboim).

Keen to maintain a broad and diverse repertoire, Stephen Milling’s other roles feature Filippo II (Don Carlos) at San Francisco Opera and Royal Danish Opera, Rocco (Fidelio) at Teatro alla Scala and Gran Teatre del Liceu, Padre Guardiano (La forza del destino) at Semperoper Dresden and Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia, Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater at Opéra national de Paris, Sparafucile (Rigoletto) at tThe Metropolitan Opera, and Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin) at Den Norske Opera. In popular demand for his portrayal of Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), appearances have included at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu and most recently in Simon McBurney’s acclaimed staging at tThe Metropolitan Opera under the baton of Nathalie Stutzmann.

A distinguished concert artist, Stephen Milling has performed with Berliner Philharmoniker in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem under Mariss Jansons, with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in a tour of Das Rheingold conducted by Yannick Nezét-Séguin, and most recently at Vienna’s Musikverein in performances of Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher.

He features on several CDs including Les Troyens with London Symphony Orchestra (Sir Colin Davis) and on DVD he stars in Der Ring des Nibelungen staged by La Fura dels Baus in Valencia, Parsifal from the Osterfestspiele Salzburg, Der Freischütz from Teatro alla Scala and, in three collaborations with Kasper Holten at the Royal Danish Opera, The Copenhagen Ring, Tannhäuser and Maskarade.

Opera highlights of the 2023/24 season include Daland at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Henrik Nánási, Hagen at Berliner Staatsoper Unter den Linden under Philippe Jordan, König Marke at home on the stage of the Royal Danish Opera under Paolo Carignani, and Sarastro at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia under James Gaffigan. On the concert platform performances include Act III of Parsifal at the Grafenegg Music Festival conducted by Roberto Paternostro and Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung under the baton of Fabio Luisi in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 Ring Cycle.

Trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Stephen Milling joined the Royal Danish Opera in 1994 where he debuted several roles that have remained central to his repertoire. In 2020, two international debuts at Teatro alla Scala as Don Fernando (Fidelio) under Riccardo Muti and as Fasolt and Hunding in Seattle Opera’s Ring Cycle paved the way towards today’s thriving global career.