Stephanie Blythe returns to Washington Concert Opera for a rare evening of glorious arias. She will be joined onstage by soprano Nathalie Paulin and in the pit by Maestro Antony Walker, the former chorus master and conductor of the Welsh National Opera now in his seventh season as WCO music director.
“Maestro Walker and I put our heads together to plan this program,” she says. “Earlier this season we worked together in Pittsburgh Opera’s ‘Samson et Dalila’ and came up with a wish list that includes some of our favorites.
“Nathalie and I met several years ago performing ‘Semele’ with Arizona Opera and became very good friends. She sang the title role, and I enjoyed just sitting on the stage becoming enraptured by her beautiful voice.”
Since her 2006 appearance here in “Tancredi,” Blythe has been wreathed with honors — among them Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year for 2009 — and lauded by critics for her astounding range, powerhouse voice and dramatic flair. Whether in recital, in the recording studio or inhabiting an operatic character with her distinctive persona, she is at the top of her game.
This season her repertoire swelled with three new roles: Dalila in “Samson et Dalila,” Orfeo in “Orfeo et Euridice” and Jezibaba in “Rusalka,” the latter two at Metropolitan Opera. On the heels of a review of her Orfeo hailing her as “a once-in-a-generation opera singer,” she eagerly awaits summer and complete immersion in Wagner with Seattle Opera’s complete Ring Cycle.
“I’ll have four new roles by the time the season ends,” she says. “With so much on my plate, having mastered so many new ones, I’d like to revisit old favorites. The idea of singing something I know and having the opportunity to rework it is very appealing.”
Blythe’s wish comes true next season when she makes her San Francisco Opera debut singing the Gypsy Azucena in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” a role she knocked out of the ballpark at Covent Garden last season. Another rollicking fling as the bearded Baba the Turk will take her back to London, followed by Mistress Quickly with Seattle, the role that singled her out more than a decade ago at the Met as a young Marilyn Horne. She returns there for all three mezzo roles in Puccini’s “Il Trittico,” a nostalgic reminder that she first sang one of them, Zita, while a high school student in Monticello, N.Y.
“We’re presenting a varied program to the WCO audience that should please everyone,” she says. “With the atmosphere in the world being what it is, people desperately need to take their minds off life and find enjoyment in beautiful music.”
If you go
Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and soprano Nathalie Paulin perform operatic highlights in concert with full orchestra.
Where: Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Info: $30 to $90; 202-364-5826, [email protected]
