Stephanie Blythe

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is considered to be one of the most highly respected artists of her generation.

Ms. Blythe  has sung in many of the renowned opera houses in the US and Europe including the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Opera National de Paris. Her many roles include the title roles in Carmen, La Grande Duchesse, Tancredi, Mignon, and Guilio Cesare; Frugola, Principessa, and Zita in the Il Trittico, Baba the Turk in The Rake's Progress, Jocasta in Oedipus Rex, Mere Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites; Isabella in L'Italiana in Algeri, Fricka in both Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, and Ino/Juno in Semele.

This season she returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Ulrica and Fricka, the Arizona Opera as Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, and made her debut at the Pittsburgh Opera as Amneris in Aida. This summer she returns to the Seattle Opera as Amneris, and next season she returns to the Pittsburgh Opera for her role debut as Dalila in Samson et Dalila,  and to the Metropolitan Opera as the title role in Orfeo and Ježibaba in Rusalka.

Ms. Blythe has appeared with many of the world's finest orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra (in Boston and in Tanglewood), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Opera Orchestra of New York, Minnesota Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Ensemble Orchestre de Paris. The many conductors with whom she has worked include Harry Bicket, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, John Nelson, Antonio Pappano, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Robert Spano, Patrick Summers, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

A frequent recitalist, Ms. Blythe has been presented in recital with her collaborative partner, Warren Jones, by Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series at Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Vocal Arts Society and at the Supreme Court at the invitation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Washington, DC; the Cleveland Art Song Festival, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Shriver Hall in Baltimore. She premiered Vignettes: Ellis Island, a song cycle written especially for her by Alan Smith, and has since performed it at the Ravinia Festival and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. It was also featured in a special television program entitled "Vignettes: An Evening with Stephanie Blythe and Warren Jones, presented by Opera News on the WNYE television series Opera New York.  This season, she  premiered another piece by Alan Smith entitled Covered Wagon Woman, which was commissioned for her residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Ms. Blythe's most recent solo recordings include a collection of pieces by Mahler, Brahms, and Wagner  and an album of Handel and Bach arias  - all released on the Virgin Classics label.

Ms. Blythe was the winner of the 1999 Richard Tucker Award.