A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon and member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Lyon, Stéphane Degout quickly came to international attention in his debut as Papageno at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Since then, he has appeared on the world’s best operatic stages, notably the Opéra de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra Comique, Berlin Staatsoper, la Monnaie, Theater an der Wien, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Lyric Opera Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, and Opernhaus Zurich. His numerous festival appearances include Salzburg, Saint Denis, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, Tokyo, and Los Angeles and toured at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and to Yokohama.

Notable roles have included Oreste (Iphigénie en Tauride), Wolfram (Tannhaüser), Raimbaud (Comte Ory), Thésée (Hippolyte & Aricie), Dandini (Cenerentola), Mercutio (Roméo & Juliette), Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte), Chorèbe (Les Troyens), il Comte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Valentin (Faust), Rodrigue (Don Carlos), Ford (Falstaff), and the title roles in Thomas’ Hamlet, Conti’s Don Chisciotte, and both Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, and has proven to be one of the leading interpreters of Debussy’s Pelléas role for which the public and press have unanimously praised him.

As a recitalist, Stéphane Degout’s has worked a lot on French melody and German Lieder under the guidance of Ruben Lifschitz. Stéphane Degout is renowned for the finesse and sensitivity he conveys in his interpretations ; he has given recitals across Europe with accompanists Alain Planès, Simon Lepper and Cédric Tiberghien while on tour (in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Berlin, Brussels, New York, etc.). In concert, he has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. At the Monnaie he sang Fauré’s Requiem and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder under Alain Altinoglu, works which he has also sung with the Orchestre National de France under Emmanuel Krivine.  His collaborations also include René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski, John Nelson, Raphaël Pichon and Charles Dutoit.

His dedication to the art has seen him perform numerous roles in operatic creations such as Benoît Mernier’s La Dispute and Philippe Boesmans’ Au Monde and Pinocchio. Most recently he has performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as The King in George Benjamin’s new production Lessons in Love and Violence – a role which was written specifically for his voice. This production’s recording was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the “Best Opera Recording” category.

In 2012, he was appointed ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ and additionally was also named ‘Lyrical Artist of the Year’ at the Victoires de la Musique Classique awards ceremony, an accolade which he won again in 2019. He was chosen as the “2018 Musical Personality of the Year” by the Association Professionnelle de la Critique de théâtre, musique et danse.