The Met mourns a British company manager

From Peter Gelb:

I’m sorry to report the sad news that Stephen Brown, our much beloved Company Manager from 1997 to 2017, and before that a highly respected Met Stage Manager from 1979 to 1997, died on July 5 from a recently diagnosed illness.

Opera was Stephen’s passion, and he put his vast knowledge to work in a Met career that lasted almost four decades until his retirement in 2017. As a gifted stage manager, Stephen exercised the immense responsibilities of that job with confidence, tact, and humor. As Company Manager, Stephen’s familiarity with our productions and his ability to direct our artistic forces earned him the respect and admiration of the entire company. Artists and fellow staff members alike relied on Stephen’s leadership and deeply valued his support.

Outside of his work at the Met, Stephen had an impressive resumé as a director of theatrical productions and as a stage manager for theater and ballet companies in addition to his operatic work. He frequently wrote and lectured authoritatively about opera and often served as a panelist on the Met’s Opera Quiz during the Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts. Stephen grew up in London and graduated from the Royal College of Music. Before moving to New York, Stephen worked as a stage manager and company manager for the UK’s Royal National Theater under Sir Peter Hall.

Stephen had a particular love of Wagner’s operas and an encyclopedic knowledge of their performance history. Among many other productions, he was stage manager for the Met’s historic Otto Schenk Ring cycle in the 1980s.

Among his Met colleagues, Stephen had a reputation as a lively raconteur, and he would regularly relate backstage anecdotes that astounded and amused. Though he retired in 2017, Stephen remained a vibrant presence at the Met. We extend our condolences to his wife, Leslie, daughter, Sasha, and to all his family and countless friends and admirers. Memorial services in New York and London will be announced at a later date.

Soprano Aprile Millo adds:
Stephen Brown was a colleague and respected cherished friend of mine at the Met. A reassuring loving presence backstage with always the best way to be and support. He had enormous responsibilities and never once lost his core truth and the human quality which is for me the difference in the so-called business of Opera to any other business. . I will genuinely miss him. condolences to his family and to all the Met family he touched by his beautiful soul.

Stephen’s CV: A Londoner with a degree from the Royal College of Music and a diploma in Stage Management from the London Opera Center, Stephen recently retired as Company Manager to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with oversight of the $85 million dollar budget and scheduling for the Artistic Department. He has also worked for a number of major international companies, including the Bolshoi Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater and the Kirov Opera.

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