Handel’s Messiah — Chorus
Trondheim Vokalensemble & Det Norske Blåseensemble · Conductor: Christopher Moulds
“Steven Griffin, as a rustic, was hilarious.” Daphna Levit, Opera Canada — A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2012
“The priest Father Adolph was played wonderfully, with a sneer, pomp and menace by Steven Griffin.” Live-Manchester: In Review — Mysterious 44, 2014
“Baritone Steven Griffin had a more relaxed stage presence, combining a musical theatre approach with full-bore operatic singing.” William Marshall, Huddersfield Examiner — Porgy and Bess, 2015
Steven Curtis Griffin
Biography
Steven Curtis Griffin is a Norway-based bass-baritone from Nova Scotia, Canada. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Memorial University of Newfoundland and his Masters degree and Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal Solo Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music.
During his studies performances ranged from singing in choruses, with both institutes and with Opera North and the Buxton International Festival, to singing solo oratorio, concerts, recitals, galas, and lead operatic roles. Steven also had the pleasure of joining Bergen’s Edvard Grieg Kor on a number of occasions and being the bass soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since leaving the Royal Northern College of Music in the spring of 2016 Steven has performed in solo and chorus work, including Buxton International Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera North and Den Norske Opera & Ballett. His work has included Prisoner 2 and cover Pizarro in Beethoven’s Leonore, cover roles in Britten’s Albert Herring and Verdi’s Alzira, Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and chorus engagements in works by Wagner, Donizetti and Britten.
Most recently, Steven has sung with Christiania Mannskor, Kantorissimo, Grorud Kirkes Kammerkor and Oscarsborg Operaen.
Schedule
Engagements
The original site has not been updated since 2022. The complete archived engagement history is retained below.
Verdi’s Otello — Chorus
Oscarsborg Operaen · Conductor: David Maiwald · Director: Jacopo Spirei
Handel’s Messiah — Chorus
Grorud Kirkes Kammerkor · Conductor: Ole Johannes Kosberg
Donizetti’s La fille du régiment — Chorus
Oscarsborg Operaen · Conductor: David Maiwald · Director: Jacopo Spirei
Show full performance archive, 2015–2019
Grorud Kirkes Kammerkor; Kantorissimo; Christiania Mannskor; Oscarsborg Operaen; Den Norske Opera & Ballett
Bach’s Actus Tragicus — bass soloist; Verdi’s Aida — chorus; Britten’s Billy Budd — chorus; tours and concerts.
Den Norske Opera & Ballett; Buxton International Festival
Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Lucia di Lammermoor; Verdi’s Alzira (chorus, cover Gusmano); Mozart’s Idomeneo; Haydn’s Heilig-Messe — bass soloist.
Wexford Festival Opera; Buxton International Festival; Huddersfield Bach Collegium
Foroni’s Margherita; Cherubini’s Medea; Verdi’s Rigoletto — Marullo; Verdi’s Macbeth; Mozart’s Lucio Silla and Missa in C; Britten’s Albert Herring — cover Vicar; Bach Cantata 39 — bass soloist.
Wexford Festival Opera; Buxton International Festival; Opera North
David’s Herculanum; Barber’s Vanessa; Donizetti’s Maria de Rudenz; Beethoven’s Leonore — Prisoner 2 and cover Pizarro; Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi; Beethoven’s Mass in C; Wagner’s Götterdämmerung; Simpson’s Pleasure; Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Theresienmesse — bass soloist.
Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra · Conductor: Sir Edward Gardner
Audio / Visual
Recordings
Ich habe genug / Schlummert ein
J. S. Bach
Steven Curtis Griffin, bass-baritone & David Jones, piano
Within this frail crucible of light
Benjamin Britten
Steven Curtis Griffin, bass-baritone & David Jones, piano
Ho capito
W. A. Mozart
Steven Curtis Griffin, bass-baritone & David Jones, piano
Repertoire
Selected and performed works
Opera & Musical Theatre
Chorus work
Barber: Vanessa
Beethoven: Leonore
Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Britten: Billy Budd
Cherubini: Medea
David: Herculanum
Donizetti: La fille du régiment; L’elisir d’amore; Lucia di Lammermoor; Maria de Rudenz
Foroni: Margherita
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
Handel: Messiah
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte; Don Giovanni; Idomeneo; Lucio Silla
Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Simpson: Pleasure
Wagner: Götterdämmerung
Verdi: Aida; Alzira; Giovanna d’Arco; Macbeth; Otello
Opera roles
David — A Hand of Bridge, Barber
Starveling — A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten
Don Giovanni — The Three Little Pigs, John Davies
Melisso — Alcina, Handel
Cascada — The Merry Widow, Lehár
Father Adolf — Mysterious 44, Malone
Don Alfonso — Così fan tutte, Mozart
Publio — La clemenza di Tito, Mozart
Le Fauteuil & L’arbre — L’enfant et les sortilèges, Ravel
Cameriere — Roman Fever, Ward
Cover roles
Pizarro — Leonore, Beethoven
Mr. Gedge, the Vicar — Albert Herring, Britten
Gusmano — Alzira, Verdi
Partial roles
Tarquinius — The Rape of Lucretia, Britten
Rodolfo — La Bohème, Leoncavallo
Count von Eberbach — Der Wildschütz, Lortzing
Don Giovanni — Don Giovanni, Mozart
Guglielmo — Così fan tutte, Mozart
Nardo — La finta giardiniera, Mozart
Marullo — Rigoletto, Verdi
Musical theatre
David — Company, Sondheim
Arias & Duets
Bach: Quia fecit mihi magna; Quoniam tu solus sanctus
Berlioz: Voici des roses
Britten: Within this frail crucible
Donizetti: Come Paride vezzoso
Handel: Honour and Arms; Sì, tra i ceppi; Vouchsafe, O Lord
Mozart: Crudel! Perché finora; Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen; Ho capito; Il core vi dono; Là ci darem la mano; Papageno/Papagena; Tardi s’avvede; Un marito, oh Dio
Purcell: Arise, ye subterranean winds; Ye twice ten hundred deities
Rossini: Ai capricci della sorte
Verdi: Eterna la memoria
Song cycles
Fauré: L’Horizon chimérique
Finzi: Let us garlands bring
Ibert: Chansons de Don Quichotte
Mahler: Rückert-Lieder
Art song
Brahms: Sapphische Ode
Schumann: Du bist wie eine Blume; Ich grolle nicht; In der Fremde; Wehmut; Waldesgespräch; Frühlingsnacht
Caccini: Ave Maria
Caldara: Come raggio di sol
Conti: Quella fiamma
Donizetti: Il giglio e la rosa; Sull’onda cheta e bruna; Leonora
Giordani: Caro mio ben
Gluck: O del mio dolce ardor
Donaudy: O del mio amato ben
Pearson-Thomas: Sebben, crudele
Debussy: Romance
Fauré: Le secret; Lydia; Nell
Hahn: À Chloris; Offrande
Bolcom: Over the Piano; Song of Black Max; Waitin’
Blitzstein: The New Suit (“Zipperfly”)
Head: The Estuary
Ireland: Sea Fever
Purcell: If Music be the Food of Love
Rhodenizer: The Love of the Sea
Vaughan Williams: The Infinite Shining Heavens; The Vagabond
Solo Oratorio
Bach: Actus Tragicus; Cantata 39; Christmas Oratorio; St John Passion (Pilate)
Beethoven: Mass in C
Fauré: Requiem
Handel: Messiah; Israel in Egypt
Mozart: Missa in C
Haydn: Heilig-Messe; Seven Last Words of Christ; Theresienmesse
Schubert: Mass in G
Concert & Chamber Work
Armstrong: Cheese
Bach: Ich habe genug; Jesu, meine Freude
Bennet: All creatures now
Bræin: Den elskedes nærhet
Dowland/Schwarz: Come again
Eccles: How Sweet, How Lovely
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess in Concert
Habbestad: Gloria, laus et honor; Sacris solemniis
Monteverdi: O primavera
Mostad: I butikkenes skoger
Nygard: No reiser kvelden seg
Paulsen: Naar Fjordene blaaner
Purcell: Tho’ My Mistress Be Fair; Sound the Trumpet; Remember not, Lord, our offences
Reissiger: Olaf Trygvason
Skavlan: Sangerhilsen
Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music
Vautor: Mother I will have a husband
Ward: Hope of my Heart
Gallery
Production and portrait photography