[3] While at the AVA, Stapp appeared in 15 student opera productions, including portraying the part of Charlemagne in the United States premiere of Franz Schubert's Fierrabras at the Walnut Street Theatre on May 11, 1980.
That summer, he made his concert debut with the Opera Company of Philadelphia; and that November, he made his OCP stage debut as Il conte di Ceprano in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto with Sherrill Milnes in the title role, June Anderson as Gilda, and conductor Gerhard Samuel.
He continued to perform periodically with the company up through 2005, appearing in such parts as Achillas in Giulio Cesare, Brander in La Damnation de Faust, Dansker in Billy Budd, Friar Lawrence in Roméo et Juliette, Lodovico in Otello, the Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen, Pluto in Il ballo delle ingrate, and the Priest in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District among others.
[2] In June 1983 he performed the role of Totor in the world premiere of Frederick Delius's Margot la Rouge at the Opera Theatre of St.
[5] He made his debut at the New York City Opera in November 1983 as Nourabad in Georges Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles with Jon Garrison as Nadir.