A renowned opera singer and recitalist, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is one of the most highly respected and critically acclaimed artists of her generation. With repertoire that ranges from Handel to Wagner, German lieder to contemporary and classic American song, she feels at home equally on opera, concert, recital, and cabaret stages. She has performed in many world-class venues like Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Paris National Opera, and the San Francisco, Chicago Lyric, and Seattle Operas, and with orchestras that include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Orchestra of New York, Minnesota Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Ensemble Orchestre de Paris, and the Concertgerbouworkest. She has also appeared at the Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, and Ravinia festivals, and at the BBC Proms.
Ms. Blythe’s many operatic roles include title roles in Carmen, Samson et Dalila, Orfeo ed Euridice, La Grande Duchesse, Tancredi, Mignon, and Giulio Cesare; Frugola, Principessa, and Zita in Il Trittico, Fricka in both Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica in >Un Ballo in Maschera, Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, Ježibaba in Rusalka, Madame de Haltiere in Cendrillon, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, and Ino/Juno in Semele. She also created the role of Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and performed Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd at the San Francisco Opera and Nettie Fowler in Carousel at the Houston Grand Opera and with the New York Philharmonic. More recently, she has expanded her repertoire to include non-traditional casting as the title role in Gianni Schicchi with San Diego Opera, and Don Jose in Carmen with Chicago Opera Theater.
Ms. Blythe was named Musical America‘s Vocalist of the Year in 2009, received an Opera News Award in 2007, and won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award in 1999. In 2019, she had the honor of being appointed Director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College. She occasionally moonlights as dramatic tenor, Blythely Oratonio.
Stephanie Blythe performed with The Orchestra Now on February 3 & 4, 2024.
Bio: Jan 2024