Stephanie Blythe to Perform in Concert at The Glimmerglass Festival, 8/5

Stephanie Blythe will perform in concert at The Glimmerglass Festival on Friday, August 5, at 4:30 p.m. The mezzo-soprano replaces Deborah Voigt, whose commitments have increased with her new position as a member of the full-time faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Blythe makes her Glimmerglass debut with this concert that features the song cycle Vignettes: Ellis Island by composer, pianist and poet Alan Louis Smith, who accompanies her. Smith's song cycle takes its text from the Ellis Island Oral History Project and sets a musical backdrop chronicling American immigration in the early 20th century. The second half of the concert includes selections from her new sing-along program Sing, America!, which she recently performed at Carnegie Hall, and features such favorites as "April Showers," "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "By the Beautiful Sea."

"I could not be happier to welcome Stephanie to our stage," said Glimmerglass Festival Artistic & General Director Francesca Zambello. "Her work in American opera is important and extensive, and I think our Audience members will really enjoy the program she has put together for her Glimmerglass debut. May this be the first of many times she joins us at Glimmerglass."

Blythe has sung in many of the renowned opera houses in the United States and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Opéra National de Paris. A frequent recitalist, Blythe has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, 92nd Street Y, Town Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, DC; San Francisco Performances; the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor; the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; and Shriver Hall in Baltimore.

The 2016 Glimmerglass Festival runs July 8 through August 27 with mainstage productions of Puccini's La bohème, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, Rossini's The Thieving Magpie and Robert Ward's Pulitzer-Prize-winning opera The Crucible. The mainstage productions are accompanied by many concerts, lectures, backstage tours and more. Visit www.glimmerglass.org for more information.