Stephanie Blythe News

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

An all-star cast will take the stage at Atlanta Symphony Hall to perform the ultimate story of love, seduction and betrayal -- Samson and Delilah. Music Director Robert Spano will lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in Saint-Saens' opera in the 2014-15 season grand finale. The performances will take place this weekend, June 4, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. and June 6, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center.

The Metropolitan Opera's annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza each summer, will return with 10 screenings of performances featuring the company's leading artists in a varied selection of operas by Bartók, Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi, running on consecutive nights from August 29 through September 7.

An all-star cast will take the stage at Atlanta Symphony Hall to perform the ultimate story of love, seduction and betrayal -- Samson and Delilah. Music Director Robert Spano will lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in Saint-Saens' opera in the 2014-15 season grand finale. The performances will take place June 4, 2015, at 8:00 p.m. and June 6, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center.

The Collegiate Chorale raised more than $300,000 at its annual Spring Benefit featuring the U.S. premiere of Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel's The Road of Promise at Carnegie Hall on May 7, 2015. Proceeds will go toward The Chorale's artistic and education initiatives.

The Collegiate Chorale announces that Ron Rifkin will join the cast of the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise tonight, May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

Stephanie Blythe--who's at the Met these days singing Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's THE RAKE'S PROGRESS--“abhors labels.” That's why, despite a cavernous voice that has become even deeper with age and could easily be termed mezzo or contralto, she tells me to call her “a girl singer.”

Stravinsky's twentieth-century operatic masterpiece The Rake's Progress will return to the Met stage for a revival of three performances only, opening May 1 and continuing through May 9. Music Director James Levine leads the performances, with rising stars Paul Appleby and Layla Claire in the central roles of the carefree Tom Rakewell and his faithful sweetheart, Anne Trulove; Stephanie Blythe as Baba the Turk, the hot-tempered bearded lady whose life becomes entangled with Tom's; English bass Brindley Sherratt in his Met debut as Anne's father, Trulove; and Gerald Finley as Nick Shadow, the mysterious man who encourages Tom to trade respectability for a life of aimless pleasure.

On Friday, May 15 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall presents celebrated mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe in recital with pianist Warren Jones in a program of popular songs by Poulenc, Ferré, Brel, Britten, and Coward. One of the most respected and versatile artists of her generation, Ms. Blythe recently starred as Gertrude Stein in the world premiere production of Ricky Ian Gordon's Twenty-Seven, an opera commissioned for her by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In 2013, Innova Records released Ms. Blythe's first crossover album As Long as There are Songs, featuring selections from the Great American Songbook arranged together with pianist Craig Terry. Together Ms. Blythe and Mr. Jones have performed recitals in major concert halls across the United States.

The Collegiate Chorale announces that Ron Rifkin will join the cast of the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise on May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrates its 40th season with its annual Rising Stars in Concert program tonight, March 21, at 7:30pm at the Civic Opera House. The talented singers and pianist of the 2014-15 ensemble will perform with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in works of Bellini, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Donizetti, Floyd, Gounod, Handel, Korngold, Mozart, Puccini, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Rossini. Rising Stars in Concert is offered in celebration of an exceptionally successful year of study and performance for these up-and-coming artists.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrates its 40th season with its annual Rising Stars in Concert program Saturday, March 21, at 7:30pm at the Civic Opera House. The talented singers and pianist of the 2014-15 ensemble will perform with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in works of Bellini, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Donizetti, Floyd, Gounod, Handel, Korngold, Mozart, Puccini, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Rossini. Rising Stars in Concert is offered in celebration of an exceptionally successful year of study and performance for these up-and-coming artists.

Minnesota Opera Music Director Michael Christie leads the world premiere performances of The Manchurian Candidate, tonight, March 7-15, 2015 in the Music Theater at Ordway.

After a critically acclaimed run in St. Louis in June of 2014, composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek's opera "27" will now be available to audiences around the globe, with the release of the world premiere recording of the opera on Albany Records. Recorded live in performance throughout the run of the opera, the album is the first commercial recording of a commissioned world premiere from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Houston, TX - February 4, 2015: Houston Grand Opera announced today the finalists for the annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center on Thursday, February 5, at 7 p.m. This year's finalists are:

After a season's hiatus, the popular and critically-acclaimed Art of the Song series returns to Alice Tully with recitals by four luminous vocal artists.

Houston, January 29, 2015-Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 2015-16 season showcases the vibrant and diverse artistic mix that marks HGO as a leading 21st-century American opera company: Wagner's Siegfried, the third installment of La Fura dels Baus's imaginative Ring cycle featuring a new generation of Wagnerians; the world premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Prince of Players; Dvo?ak's fairy tale rarity Rusalka; a holiday revival of family favorite The Little Prince from the award-winning composer Rachel Portman and librettist Nicholas Wright; a new production of The Marriage of Figaro and a new-to-Houston Eugene Onegin; a beloved core production, Tosca; and the Houston debut of Broadway sensation Rob Ashford's take on the classic musical Carousel. Through its community collaboration program HGOco, the company will present two additional world premieres: O Columbia, a chamber opera by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Royce Vavrek that examines the past, present, and future of the American spirit of exploration; and another chamber opera, by composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, about the impact of hurricanes on the Texas Gulf coast.

Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director, today announced Carnegie Hall's 2015-2016 season consisting of more than 170 concerts as well as wide-ranging education and community programs created by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. The upcoming season includes performances by many of the world's greatest artists and ensembles representing classical, pop, jazz, and world music, with events presented on Carnegie Hall's three stages, in the Hall's new Resnick Education Wing, and throughout New York City.

Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director, today announced Carnegie Hall's 2015-2016 season consisting of more than 170 concerts as well as wide-ranging education and community programs created by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. The upcoming season includes performances by many of the world's greatest artists and ensembles representing classical, pop, jazz, and world music, with events presented on Carnegie Hall's three stages, in the Hall's new Resnick Education Wing, and throughout New York City.

Handel's sensuous and sparkling opera Semele is coming to McCaw Hall for the first time this February. Composed to an English-language libretto, this Greek myth tells the story of a mortal woman, Semele, who aspires to live among the “beautiful people”—that is, to become a goddess. Abducted by Jupiter, king of the gods, Semele believes she has found endless love (not to mention endless pleasure!) in the divine realm. But dancing with the deities proves dangerous; Juno, Jupiter's jealous wife, will make this mere mortal pay dearly for her ambition and vanity in an opera that is both comic and tragic.