Watch The Entire Maestro James Levine "60 Minutes" Interview

Looking Back: Maestro James Levine conducts Marilyn
Horne (left) and Leontyne Price (center) as featured
 in the 60 Minutes interview with Bob Simon.

Hopefully with the reminder last week about Maestro James Levine's interview on 60 Minutes it was on everyone's calendar. But in case you missed it, you can watch the full interview below, as well as two web exclusive clips after the jump. Although not Bob Simon's final interview before his death, it was one of the last and the opera world can be happy that it was finished in its entirety. Read more about the interview by clicking here. There are also a few photos after the jump featuring highlights from the interview.

Margaret Lattimore Joins Stephanie Blythe For "America Sings" Concert

Margaret Lattimore

"SUNY Potsdam alumnae Stephanie Blythe and Margaret Lattimore will join forces for a gala concert to benefit the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar on May 20 at 7:30 p.m. The two celebrated mezzo-sopranos will team up with pianist and composer Alan Louis Smith for the opening gala concert entitled America Sings in the Proscenium Theater at SUNY Potsdam's brand-new Performing Arts Center. The America Sings! concert will encourage audience participation and will feature Americana favorites from across the ages. Blythe and Lattimore will also perform a song cycle composed by Smith. This concert is the opening public event for the 2014 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. Now in its third season, the seminar was founded by Blythe along with Executive Director Dr. Carleen Graham, a professor of opera at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. This year, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar

Stephanie Blythe

will return to Crane from May 19 to May 24. Six singers and three pianists (ages 23-35) from across the country were selected through a competitive, national audition to work with Blythe and Smith for the 2014 festival....Tickets for America Sings! are $25 for the general public and $20 for SUNY Potsdam faculty, staff and students. All proceeds will benefit the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. Contact the Community Performance Series Box Office at 267-2277 or www.cpspotsdam.org to purchase tickets. Tickets may also be purchased at the CPS Box Office in SUNY Potsdam's Performing Arts Center, or at Northern Music & Video in downtown Potsdam."[Source] For more information about SUNY Potsdam, and The Crane School of Music, click here.

Olympics Of Singing To Air January 11 On PBS

"Tune in to PBS on Jan. 11 to watch Stephanie Blythe, Stephen Costello, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Gregg Grimsley, Angela Meade, Eric Owens, Ailyn Pérez, Matthew Polenzani, and 2013 Richard Tucker Award Winner Isabel Leonard perform at the highly anticipated opera event. Check local listings: http://to.pbs.org/12CzT1B"

Stephanie Blythe Offers Up A Great American Songbook CD

With the cross-over capabilities of Eileen Farrell, the booming-voice belt of Kate Smith, and Americana can-do spirit of Marilyn Horne, the mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe charters 19th-century popular song territory with the new CD As Long As There Are Songs. The recording will be released on September 24, 2013. Click here for the full liner notes and here to order the CD. A bonus audio clip of "Bei mir bist du Schön" can be heard here. Complete track list after the jump.

Stephanie Blythe Talks About Her Kate Smith Tribute Concert

Watch Stephanie Blythe Talks Kate Smith on PBS. See more from pbs.

Stephanie Blythe Warms the Holidays in New Jersey Concert

Blythe brought Brahms and Bizet
to West Side Presbyterian Church
in Ridgewood, New Jersey

"'Geistliches Wiegenlied,' a cradle song from the Virgin Mary’s point of view, not only showcased Blythe’s commanding instrument — the firm golden core, the round, earthy lower register — but also her impeccable phrasing. She and her chamber music partners gave a communicative account of the piece, conveying the mother’s anxiety as well as her affection....On the more technical side, it would have been helpful if song translations were handed out at the beginning of the concert, rather than after intermission. This made Blythe’s rendition of Brahms’ Eight Gypsy Songs less approachable than they might otherwise have been. While a consummate performer throughout, Blythe sounded just slightly worn in some of the more animated selections. Still, in an impassioned plea for kindness from a lover in 'Kommt dir manchmal in den Sinn,' the waves of abundant sound that poured forth and swelled at key moments mesmerized. The lively dance of 'Brauner Brusche,' a meeting between a gypsy boy and a blue-eyed girl, also charmed...The concert concluded with selections from Carmen: first an assured, playful 'Seguidilla' and then the ubiquitous 'Habanera,' which Blythe made her own. She drew the listeners in, hushing the final lines of verses, leaving one wanting more and letting out a full-force battle cry with the chorus’ refrain — 'If I love you, watch out.'" [Source]

Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon to Honor Marilyn Horne

The lady of the hour: Miss Horne

77th Annual Guild Luncheon
Jackie! Celebrating Marilyn Horne

October 31, 2011 12:15 PMWaldorf-Astoria

The honoree of this year’s Annual Guild Luncheon is the legendary Marilyn Horne. Join us as we salute one of the greatest singers of our time, with appearances by her colleagues and friends, video performances and a vocal tribute by Stephanie Blythe. Guests at the luncheon will include June Ander­son, Lucine Amara, Mar­tina Arroyo, Har­o­lyn Black­well, Judith Ble­gen, Richard Bonynge, Nedda Casei, Barbara Cook, Frank Corsaro, John Corigli­ano, Dwayne Croft, Tyne Daly, Ray­mond Gniewek, Florence Henderson, Martin Katz, Jean Kraft, Shir­ley Love, John Mac­urdy, Spiro Malas, Terrence McNally, Marnie Nixon, Betsy Norden, Roberta Peters, Eve Queler, Samuel Ramey, Regina Res­nik, Ren­ata Scotto, Rita Shane, Bryn Ter­fel, Ben­ita Valente, Deborah Voigt, Fre­der­ica von Stade and Robert White.

TICKETS
Regular Tickets: $250 ($125 tax-deductible)
Benefactor Tickets: $475 ($350 tax-deductible)
President’s Circle Tickets: $750 ($625 tax-deductible)
Benefactor Tables for Ten: $4,750 ($3,500 tax-deductible)
President’s Circle Tables for Ten: $7,500 ($6,000 tax-deductible)

Buy tickets for the event by clicking here.

Coffee Break: Gorgeous Baroque Duet Executed in Glory

"Son nata a lagrimar" Giulio Cesare (Händel)

Live from the Metropolitan Opera, 1999
David Daniels........Sesto
Stephanie Blythe....Cornelia

Stephanie Blythe Sings For Classical Action

The mezzo in action.

"There was a day when the 'Three Bs' were acknowledged to be Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. On Wednesday evening, April 6, Brahms was still in evidence, but the other members of the evening’s Trio of B’s were the irrepressible Irving Berlin and the incandescent Stephanie Blythe. And add to that heady mix the irresistible Warren Jones on piano and you have the recipe for a truly unforgettable evening of music-making. From Brahms’ Eight Folk Melodies and his Rhapsody No. 2 for solo piano to vocal and piano gems of the 20s and 30s, among them piano rags of Scott Joplin and Berlin’s saucy 'If You Don’t Want My Peaches,' never saucier than as delivered by the incomparable Ms. Blythe, eighty-five Classical Action supporters were treated to an evening of sheer vocal and piano magic. As an encore, Ms.

The singer with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Charles Hamlen.

Blythe offered a haunting performance of Stephen Foster’s classic 'Beautiful Dreamer,' which lingers in our ears and memories and is probably resonating still in the acoustically vibrant home of our gracious and generous hosts, Kevin Roon and Simon Yates. Tickets are still available for the final concert in the Michael Palm Series on May 4, featuring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and pianist Jeremy Denk." [Source]

Stephanie Blythe Channels Kate Smith

(Photo: Ruby Washington/The New York Times)

"On Wednesday evening in the Allen Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center, it wasn’t hard to see how Kate Smith might have inspired a hockey team, not to mention galvanized a nation through a depression and a war. In a richly entertaining, commandingly sung program of Smith standards, part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook

series, the eminent mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe painted a vivid picture of a tirelessly optimistic artist and showed the power of classic songs like 'We’ll Meet Again,' 'The White Cliffs of Dover' and 'When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain' while providing far more than a nostalgia trip through old chestnuts." [Source]

Marilyn Horne & Stephanie Blythe In Residence

"SUNY Potsdam is proud to welcome internationally-celebrated mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe '92 back to campus as a guest artist-in-residence at The Crane School of Music this coming week. The Metropolitan Opera star, who has been hailed as a 'once-in-a-generation opera singer' by the New York Times, will share her amazing talent and professional experience with Crane vocal students from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4. Select singers will receive individual coaching sessions with Blythe, while others will get the rare opportunity to take part in a masterclass with the acclaimed artist. She has served as a guest artist-in-residence several times, and starred in the world premiere of 'The