Stephen Higgins

Stephen Higgins studied at University of Oxford, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and National Opera Studio in London. Higgins works as a conductor and pianist with leading British operahouses like Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Scottish Opera. For ENO he has conducted The Magic Flute, L’elisir d’amore for Opera Holland Park, Don Giovanni for the festival in Porto, in addition to several musicals by Sondheim for Châtelet in Paris. In 2016 he conducted Britten’s opera Owen Wingrave at Opéra National de Paris.

Higgins was the music director for the world premiere of BNOs Future Opera at the festival Borealis spring 2018, and also for our chamber version of Bizet’s Carmen on tour the same year.

He conducted our version of Sweeney Todd in Grieghallen here in Bergen autumn 2019, and was also music director for Future Opera spring 2020. (Note: the Future Opera premiere was cancelled due to the Covid-19-situation.) Higgins was also the music director of our film about Carmen, which was launched on the Norwegian TV channel NRK2 October 2020, and pianist at the concert Absolute Lloyd Webber at Den Nationale Scene the same autumn.

Higgins has arranged and conducted a highly acclaimed chamber version of Bartók's one-act opera Bluebeard's Castle, where dementia is thematised. This version has been performed in several venues around the world, among them Edinburgh International Festival, New Zealand Opera, The Atlanta Opera in the US and at Beijing Music Festival in China.

Updated May 2024

Listen: Ent'racte to third act from Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen: