©Photo: Bill Cooper

Stephen Milling

Bass

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“Stephen Milling is outstanding as Hagen, singing with huge power, but also scrupulous in his care for the text and phrasing.”
(Financial Times)

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 the 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 the 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 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 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.

Gallery

Die Zauberflöte: “In diesen heil’gen Hallen”

Wagner: Parsifal (excerpt) at Salzburg Easter Festival © Deutsche Grammophon

Wagner: Tannhäuser (excerpt) © Decca Classics/Det Kongelige Teater

Wagner: Siegfried (excerpt) © Unitel Classica

“Vocal honours went to Stephen Milling whose deep bass grew more assured throughout and whose towering presence was perfect for Sarastro.”

Opera Magazine, July 2023

“By the time we got to “In diesen heil’gen Hallen,” Milling’s voice was suffused with deep warmth, like stone warmed by the sun. The scene with [Pamina] is surprisingly tender — a lesson from a father to a daughter that doesn’t feel condescending but instead full of love and understanding.”

New York Observer, May 2023

“His elegance and poise was reflected in his two big arias “Isis und Isiris” and “In diesen heil’gen Hallen.”… Milling didn’t seem at all daunted by them and managed a seamless transition to those lower reaches without obstructing the balance or fluidity of his line.”

OperaWire, May 2023

“Stephen Milling brings the executor of the end — Hagen — to the stage with a powerful voice and a lot of presence. With full force, his calls echo pithy over the well-prepared Staatsopernchor.”

Opera Online February 2023

“Milling’s voice is so huge he could give the impression of using only a fraction of it for most of Act 1 (and always servicing the text).”

Opera Magazine, July 2022

“Stephen Milling is a perfect fit for what can be expected of Sarastro. His calm and warm voice makes him the ideal male figure wanted by Mozart and Schikaneder to symbolize justice and knowledge.”

Opera Gazet, July 2022

“Stephen Milling, with the wingspan of a giant and extraordinary scenic poise, sang a serene and firm Sarastro.”

Platea Magazine, June 2022

“Stephen Milling as Hagen, with his poise and dark voice producing a chilling call to arms “

Opera Magazine, May 2022

“Danish bass Stephen Milling gives an overwhelming physical and vocal presence. The scene with the ghost of his father Alberich, highlighted by musical drama, is one of the best.”

(Vanity Fair, February 2022)

“A cast in which the nobility and the line of Stephen Milling’s singing stand out, whose brilliance in the character of Hagen shows that there are no secondary roles”

(El Confidencial, February 2022)

“Stephen Milling was a threatening Hunding with a black bass sound.”

(OperaMag, Feb 2020)

“Stephen Milling, as Hunding, has the most beautiful voice with his built-in subwoofer. Delicious how those consonants roll out.”

(De Volksrant, November 2019)

“Stephen Milling brought vocal authority to the role of the Landgrave.”

(Opera Magazine, July 2019)

“Bass Stephen Milling was also top-drawer, combining power with effortless lyricism as Landgrave Hermann.”

(Bachtrack, April 2019)

“Total Wagnerian perfection in a nutshell came from Stephen Milling, making his mark with huge authority as the brute husband who treats his
wife as a chattel.”

(The Arts Desk, January 2019)

“Stephen Milling’s Hagen, by contrast, was an awesome, overbearing presence both physically and vocally.”

(Guardian, September 2018)

“Warner opted to double up the roles of Padre Guardiano and the Marchese de Calatrava, and they were given imposing form by Stephen Milling.”

(Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine, August 2018)

“Stephen Milling is excellent, a Rocco with a beautiful burnished tone, full bodied and incisive. He knows how to highlight humanity from great simplicity, his Rocco has foresight and is maybe even a little corruptible but certainly not a killer. And in the aria Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben he adds wisdom and common sense.”

(OPERACLICK.COM, June 2018)

“The [cast all] made valuable contributions, especially the imposing bass of Stephen Milling (the Hermit)”

(Opera Magazine, March 2018)

“There were some truly exceptional performances:… Stephen Milling’s stentorian Hagen, whose famous call in Act 2 of Götterdämmerung seemed to shake the theatre’s wooden structure”

(Opera Magazine, October 2017)

“Stephen Milling sings a wonderfully nasty Hagen with the aura of a heavyweight boxer. Brutal in the scene when he kills Siegfried.”

(Salzburger Nachtrichten, August 2017)

“Stephen Milling, who sings the role of Hagen with inexhaustible power reserves and a soothing bass”

(Neue Musikzeitung, August 2017)

“As the giant Fafner, Stephen Milling [was] marvellous…Milling offered a more gruff but equally colourful bass as the treacherous Fafner.”

(New York Classical Review, June 2017)

“in vocal terms [Hans Sachs] was outgunned by the Pogner of Stephen Milling, a singer of dark Wagnerian power.”

(John Allison, Opera Magazine, May 2017)

“Stephen Milling’s penetrating, dramatic bass proved excellent in the role of Philippe II”

(Badische Zeitung, June 2016)

“Stephen Milling’s Hermann tramped the stage fiercely and filled the theatre with generous waves of sound.”

(Opera Magazine, July 2016)

“Stephen Milling sounds superbly sonorous as the Landgrave.”

(Guardian, Tim Ashley, May 2016)

“Danish bass Stephen Milling is a tower of strength as the Landgrave.”

(The Stage, May 2016)

“Stephen Milling’s sonorous Landgrave was, quite rightly, especially acclaimed by the audience.”

(Opera Today, May 2016)

“Stephen Milling sang Gurnemanz with dark, focused tone and excellent diction.”

(Opera Magazin, March 2016)

“Stephen Milling was an inspired Gurnemanz, with a dark timbre, secure intonation and forthright diction.”

(Opernwelt, February 2016)

“Stephen Milling was a top quality Gurnemanz. He maintained a compelling line in his poignant song, as well as strong stage presence.”

(Mundo Clásico, December 2015)

“The highlight, an all-round outstanding Stephen Milling as Hagen”

(Stuttgarter Zeitung, August 2015)

“Stephen Milling, already physically convincing as Hagen, gives a highly dramatic vocal performance also. Ideal casting.”

(Mittelbayerische, August 2015)

“Stephen Milling, who wowed me as Marke in a Berlin Tristan last year, was an outstanding Hagen. Not only was his voice thrilling and, when needed, vast, he also captured the formidable menace of his character better than most others I’ve seen. His Watch Song was delivered from inside an iron grill, but this only intensified the impression of restrained malevolent power.”

(David Larkin, Bachtrack, August 2015)

“The central force of the evening is Stephen Milling. His Hagen is both theatrically and vocally terrific. With his soft, dark bass, Milling gives gives the scheming character a demonic streak with great charisma and a seductive power.”

(Kreiszeitung, August 2015)

“Stephen Milling as the cuckolded king was the most consistently pleasing of the evening. Possessing a rich, mellifluous timbre with excellent diction and an ability to shape long vocal phrases with outstanding projection.”

(Opera Critic, February 2015)

“Stephen Milling convinces as King Marke, full of desperate sound with a voluminous penetrating dark voice.”

(Opera Online, February 2015)

“In the role of King Marke was the excellent Stephen Milling who sang with a large homogenous voice and perfect intonation.”

(Teatro.org, February 2015)