Stephen Lawless was Director of Production for the Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1986 to 1991, where his work culminated in an immensely successful production of Death in Venice, which was subsequently recorded by the BBC for television and video release. The production was revived at the 1992 Glyndebourne Festival.
He made his début with the Kirov Opera in Leningrad producing Boris Godunov which was broadcast live on British television, the first ever live telecast of an opera from the Soviet Union to the U.K.
His productions include Boris Godunov for the Vienna Staatsoper; Der Fliegende Holländer, Daphne, Capriccio, Semele and Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci for the New York City Opera; Il trovatore, Vanessa, and L’elisir d’amore for Washington Opera; Un ballo in maschera, Il trovatore, L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale and Falstaff for Los Angeles Opera; Capriccio and Boris Godunov for San Francisco Opera; Le nozze di Figaro and La bohème for the Lyric Opera Chicago; Le nozze di Figaro, Cavallaria rusticana and Pagliacci, La clemenza di Tito, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena and Boris Godunov for Dallas Opera; Scarlatti’s Griselda for the Staatsoper, Berlin; Boris Godunov and Un ballo in maschera for La Fenice in Venice; Orfeo ed Euridice, Tancredi and a double bill of Iolanta and Francesca da Rimini for the Theater an der Wien; Die Fledermaus for the Opera de Geneve; Falstaff and Die Fledermaus for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Le nozze di Figaro, Tosca, Der Rosenkavalier and Un ballo in maschera for the Hong Kong Festival; Peter Grimes, Die Fledermaus and Otello for Graz Opera; Acis and Galatea, Venus and Adonis, Dido and Aeneas, and Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena for the Innsbruck Festival; Salome and Der Ring des Niebelungen for the Nürnberg Opera; Maria Stuarda for the Canadian Opera; L’elisir d’amore and Faust for Santa Fe Opera and Die Fledermaus for the National Performing Arts Centre in Beijing. He received great critical acclaim for his production of Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
© Bolshoi Theatre