We are delighted that Stephen Taylor will re-join WOCo. as the Director of Gianni Schicchi. Stephen is pivotal to the mentoring of our Emerging Artists, providing an enriching experience as they work intensively on the production. Guy and Stephen have collaborated on each of WOCo.'s productions since 2010.
As one company members said, "I really enjoyed the whole experience, from the rehearsals in London to the final performances! Guy and Stephen are a fantastic team and really brought a lot out of me and the rest of the cast in their development of the opera. I felt that all cast and crew were listened to and encouraged individually. I have felt really inspired by the whole process to take my singing further and I now feel a lot more confident about taking the next steps to do this."
More about Stephen...
Born in Birmingham, Stephen Taylor studied English at Trinity College, Cambridge.
From 1991 to 1995 he was an assistant director at the Geneva Grand Théâtre, From 1992 onwards, he regularly assisted Pierre Strosser in Geneva, Strasbourg, Lyon, Paris and Adelaide. For the Paris Opera’s Atelier Lyrique, he codirected « L’Isola disabitata » (revived at the Théâtre de Caen and the Rennes Opera) and « Dido and Aeneas » with Dominique Pitoiset. He has revived opera productions for the Danish Royal Opera in Copenhagen, for San Francisco Opera, for the Paris Opera, the Teatro Malibran in Venice, and the Glyndebourne Festival as well as opera houses in Vilnius, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Nancy and Marseilles.
In 1999, he directed « Idomeneo » for the Opéra National de Lyon. In 2001, he directed « The Rape of Lucretia » for the Opéra du Rhin. The production was revived in 2007 and 2014 at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris. In 2003, he directed « Don Pasquale » for Les Nuits Romantiques du Bourget, in Aix-les-Bains.
He restaged the Mariinsky Theatre’s Ring cycle for Valery Gergiev, in Saint Petersburg, at the Bolshoi Theatre Bolchoï in Moscow, in Seoul and in Tokyo. He directed Franz Léhàr’s « Frühling » at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, and the Théâtre de Suresnes, in 2006 and « Der Fliegende Holländer » at the Prague State Opera in 2008. He directed « Il Trovatore » for the Geneva Grand Théâtre in 2009.
In 2010, he directed the first production in France of Martinu’s «Mirandolina» for the Atelier Lyrique of the Opéra National de Paris. In 2012, his production of «La Finta Giardiniera» with the Atelier Lyrique was given at the MC93 theatre in Bobigny, Paris. In 2014, he directed a world premiere «Maudits les Innocents» to a libretto by Laurent Gaudé, and with four acts of contemporary music composed respectively by Mikel Urquiza, Julian Lembke, Didier Rotella and Francisco Alvarado, for performances in the Amphithéâtre of the Opéra-Bastille in Paris.