Stephen Hegedus

Bio

Hailed by the Ottawa Citizen as a singer possessing “…an instrument of rare beauty, majestic and commanding from the bottom of his range to the top,” Stephen Hegedus is that rarest of bass-baritones, totally at home in the works of Puccini and Weill as well as those of Bach and Mozart. Especially appreciated for his performance in Messiah, he has been heard in Handel’s masterpiece with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra,  l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Naples Philharmonic, and Victoria Symphony.  

Hegedus’ recent and upcoming engagements are highlighted by Messiah with the Toronto Symphony, Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Vancouver Bach Choir, and appearances with Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières in La bohème and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.  

His 2019/20 season included appearances with Opera Atelier as Leporello in Don Giovanni, and the regrettably cancelled production of Handel’s Resurrezione. He sang the role of Rocco in Beethoven’s Leonore for Opera Lafayette in Washington D.C. and New York City, recently released on DVD. Concert highlights included Messiah with the Winnipeg and Okanagan Symphonies, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Bach’s Lutheran Masses for Montreal’s Choeur St. Laurent along with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the latter two projects postponed due to the pandemic.  

The role of Leporello in Don Giovanni was a feature of Hegedus’ schedule in 2018-2019, when he performed it at Manitoba Opera. In Edmonton he was heard in Le comte Ory by Rossini, in Carmen as Zuniga for l’Opéra de Montréal, as well as Messiah for the Edmonton Symphony. He appeared for I Musici de Montréal in Bach’s Magnificat, with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Edmonton Symphony for Messiah and performed Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.    

Fluent in French, English and Hungarian, Stephen Hegedus’s 2017/18 season included Messiah with Nezet-Seguin and l’Orchestre Métropolitain, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore for Vancouver Opera, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro and Neptune/ Time in Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses, both for Opera Atelier, Colline in La bohème for Pacific Opera Victoria and Messiah with the Thunder Bay and Regina symphonies.  

Hegedus’s 2016/17 season featured Mozart’s Requiem for the Seattle Symphony, Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust with the Grant Park Festival in Chicago, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Florida Orchestra, Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium for I Musici de Montréal and Masetto in Don Giovanni for Opera de Montréal. As well, he was featured in Weill’s Sieben Todsünden for the Toronto Symphony, Alidoro in La Cenerentola for Edmonton Opera, Mozart’s Requiem for Mercury Baroque in Houston and Créon in Medée for Opera Atelier in Toronto and Versailles.  

A prize winner at the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Competition, hosted by the Oratorio Society of New York, his extensive concert experience includes appearances with the Vancouver Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), Winnipeg Symphony (Haydn’s Creation), the Grant Park Festival (Dvorak’s The Spectre’s Bride, Brahms’ Requiem), l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Bernstein’s A Quiet Place), the Victoria Symphony (Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium), l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec (Bach’s Magnificat and Bruckner’s Te Deum), and the Aldeburgh Festival (Bach’s B Minor Mass). Operatic roles include the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello and Masetto (Don Giovanni), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Albert (Werther), Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Collatinus (The Rape of Lucretia), Talbot (Maria Stuarda), Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte) and Angelotti (Tosca). He has been engaged by the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Canadian Opera Company, l’Opéra de Montréal, and Against the Grain Theatre. Further credits include Lully’s Armide with Opera Atelier, Opera Columbus and at Versailles, St. Matthew Passion with the Vancouver Bach Choir, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Pacific Opera Victoria, and Field Marshall Haig in the premiere of Estacio’s Ours, at Opera on the Avalon. A finalist at Operalia, Stephen made his Carnegie Hall debut singing Bach’s Mass In B-Minor with the Oratorio Society of New York and later returned for Handel’s Messiah.