Victorian Opera has announced that baritone Stephen Marsh is the winner of the inaugural Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts Opera Prize.

Baritone Stephen Marsh. Photo courtesy of Victorian Opera

The new $50,000 prize was announced as part of Victorian Opera’s 15th anniversary celebrations, and saw candidates audition from across Australia.

“Victorian Opera is pleased to announce baritone Stephen Marsh as the inaugural recipient of the Michael Stubbs and Malcom Roberts Opera Prize for 2021,” said Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director Richard Mills. “Stephen will join the company in January for a full year of employment, intensive coaching and mentoring to prepare him for the next stage of what promises to be a significant career. Victorian Opera thanks Michael Stubbs and Malcolm Roberts for the generous and visionary sponsorship that has made this new initiative possible.”

Marsh has appeared in numerous Victorian Opera youth productions and made his mainstage debut with the company in 2017 in Respighi’s The Sleeping Beauty. He has since appeared in Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande, Wagner’s Parsifal, and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, as well as in the title role of Victorian Opera’s Green Room Award-winning new work, Simon Bruckard and...