Born in the United Kingdom, Stephen Taylor read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, He was a production assistant to figures such as Francesca Zambello. Matthias Langhoff, and Pierre Strosser whose Ring des Nibelungen he accompanied from its original production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to the 1998 first Australian full production of the cycle in Adelaide. Over a fifteen-year period, besides the opera productions below, he has worked regularly with the young artists of the Atelier Lyrique and Académie of the Opéra National de Paris. Amongst his productions, he directed Idomeneo, conducted by Louis Langrée, at the Opéra National de Lyon. His production of The Rape of Lucretia for the Jeunes Voix du Rhin of the Opéra National du Rhin was performed in 2001 in Colmar, Mulhouse and Strasbourg, and revived at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris and at the Centre Dramatique National d’Hérouville (Comédie de Caen). For the 2003 Festival des Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget, he directed a new production of Don Pasquale at the Théâtre du Casino, in Aix-les-Bains.
He was revival director for the Mariinsky Theatre’s production of Wagner’s Ring, conducted by Valery Gergiev, in Saint Petersburg, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, in Seoul and in Tokyo. In 2006, he directed Frühling by Franz Lehàr at the Opéra Comique in Paris, and for the Théâtre de Suresnes. In 2007, his semi-staging of the lovers’ scenes from Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was produced at the Palais Garnier, (conducted by Edward Gardner). Including a fuller adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing in his own adaptation of Berlioz’ dialogues, he directed his semi-staging of Béatrice et Bénédict (conducted by Philippe Jordan) again for the Paris National Opera.
He directed a new production of Der Fliegende Holländer (conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire) at the State Opera in Prague in 2008, and a new production of Il Trovatore, (conducted by Evelino Pido), at the Geneva Grand Théâtre in 2009.
In June 2009, he directed the French premiere of Martinu’s Mirandolina for the Atelier Lyrique of the Paris National Opera, at the MC93 in Bobigny, followed by La Finta Giardiniera in 2012. In the Amphithéâtre of the Opéra-Bastille in 2014, he directed the world premier of Maudits les Innocents to a libretto by Laurent Gaudé, and a four-hander score by the composers Mikel Urquiza, Julian Lembke, Didier Rotella and Francisco Alvarado.
He has staged Hänsel und Gretel for Escales Lyriques on the Ile d’Yeu, and staged thirteen productions for the Westminster Opera Company, in London and the Charentes-Maritime region of France, including Dido and Aeneas, and most recently Die Zauberflöte, La Boheme and Le Nozze di Figaro.