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The American mezzo-soprano, Stephanie Blythe, received in 1993 her Bachelor's degree in Music (Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY) and a 2-year Tanglewood summer fellowship. In 1994 she was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 1995 she was the recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant and an Opera Index award. She is also a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
Stephanie Blythe debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 1994-1995 season, as the Voice in Wagner's Parsifal. Quite quickly the following season, the Voice was incarnated in Verdi's Falstaff as Mistress Quickly. It is a role she now virtually owns - she has sung it at the Opera Company of Philadephia and in the 1998-1999 season sang it at the Los Angeles Opera and in a later season at the Opéra Bastille, her Paris debut. And just as quickly, a string of roles soon came her way at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in almost non-stop fashion: the Mother in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, Madelon in Giordano's Andrea Chenier, Ludmilla in Smetana's The Bartered Bride (1996-1997); Mamma Lucia in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (which she sang on the Met tour of Japan in the summer of 1997); Baba the Turk in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Auntie in Britten's Peter Grimes, and Antonia's mother in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (1997-1998) - all sung to critical acclaim. Her triumphant performance at the Met as Cornelia in George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare was praised by the New York Times as ‘Magnificent. In everything she does, she combines poignancy with stateliness... bringing forward a remarkable range of vocal colours.’ Her Sesto in that performance was David Daniels, who joins her here in the duet Son nata a lagrimar. In April 1999, she sang Cornelia in G.F. Handel's Giulio Cesare. Her rich, expressive voice has led to operatic debuts across Europe and America in roles as diverse as Juno in G.F. Handel’s Semele, Fricka in Walküre and Carmen.
Stephanie Blythe's recent operatic appearances (as of 2001) include an impressive array of house debuts in new productions, among them the Opera Bastille's Falstaff as Mistress Quickly, and Seattle Opera singing Fricka in both Rheingold and Walküre. She has a close working relationship with the Opéra Bastille, as well as with the Metropolitan Opera. Among the operatic roles she performs are Comelia in Giulio Cesare, Juno in Semele, Baba the Turk in The Rake's Progress, as well as the title roles in Carmen, La Grand Duchesse, and L'italiana in Algeri.
Stephanie Blythe regularly works with the world's finest conductors, including Yves Abel, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Mark Elder, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, John Nelson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Patrick Summers, and Michael Tilson Thomas, along with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Minnesota Orchestra, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Stephanie Blythe also maintains an active recital and concert calendar. Her New York debut in November 1994, the Judith Raskin Memorial Recital, was followed by a recital with the Marilyn Horne Foundation (1995). She was a soloist in the Water for Africa Benefit in Toronto (with Louis Quilico) and an alto soloist in G.F. Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. In the summer of 1996, she sang Ottorino Respighi's Il Tramonto with the Audubon Quartet and in the 1997-1998 season, made her Lincoln Center recital debut at the Walter Reade Theater with pianist Warren Jones as accompanist and sang Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra's Mahler Festival. In December 1998, she sang G.F. Handel's Messiah with the Minnesota Orchestra and Florida Philharmonic. Recently she premiered in New York Vignettes: Ellis Island, a song cycle written especially for her by Alan Smith, gave a USA recital series co-presented by the Marilyn Home Foundation, and made her debut at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Great Performers series.
Stephanie Blythe is the 1999 recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Music Foundation award.
Stephanie Blythe made her recording debut in a programme of arias by G.F. Handel and J.S. Bach conducted by the Baroque specialist John Nelson. |
