Blanche Thebom died she was 91

Blanche Thebom was an American mezzo-soprano who sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for almost twenty years. She was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania.

(September 19, 1918 – March 23, 2010^[1])

Blanche Thebom made her concert debut in 1941, with the Metropolitan Opera, as Fricka in December 1941. She made her Met debut in November 1944 at the Philadelphia's Academy of Music as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde. She was the leading dramatic mezzo-soprano of the Metropolitan Opera for 22 years, created the American premiere performances of Baba the Turk in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, the Mother in Strauss' Arabella, and Mére Marie in Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. In her 22 seasons with the Met (1944-1959, 1960-1967) she appeared in 356 performances, 28 roles, and 27 works. She also sang in various opera houses in America and Europe, with increasing success. The first American to sing at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, Blanche Thebom is also remembered for her Dorabella in the historic production directed by Alfred Lunt of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, and for her Brangäne on Flagstad/Wilhelm Furtwängler recording of Tristan und Isolde.

In 1967 Blanche Thebom was appointed head of the Southern Regional Opera Company in Atlanta. It folded in 1968. In 1968 she was appointed director of the opera workshop of San Francisco State University. Blanche Thebom founded the Opera Arts Training Program, a three-week workshop in conjunction with San Francisco Girls Chorus in 1988. She lives and teaches in San Francisco.

Upon her retirement from the Metropolitan ca. 1960, she taught and directed opera performance in Atlanta and Little Rock until around 1980. She appeared in summer theatre revivals of Broadway musicals such as The Sound of Music (as the Mother Abbess) in Atlanta.

She may have been best-known for her performance of the role of Brangane in Tristan und Isolde in a recording conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler with Kirsten Flagstad and Ludwig Suthaus.

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