Judith Blegen (April 27, 1943, Lexington, Kentucky)[1] is an American soprano, particularly associated with light lyric roles of the French, Italian and German repertories.
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Blegen was raised and attended high school in Missoula, Montana.[2][3] She studied first the violin with Toshiya Eto, and later voice at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, with Eufemia Giannini-Gregory, and later in Rome, with Luigi Ricci. She made her operatic debut in Nuremberg, Germany, as Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann, in 1965, where she subsequently sang Lucia, Susanna, and Zerbinetta. That same year, she appeared in Spoleto, Italy, as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande.[4]
She made her debut at the Vienna State Opera, as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, in 1968, and the following year appeared at the Santa Fe Opera, as Emily in the premiere of Menotti's Help, Help, the Globolinks!, a role requiring her both to sing and play the violin. Her New York Metropolitan Opera debut took place on January 19, 1970, as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. She sang there over 200 performances of 19 roles, including Marzelline, Zerlina, Nanetta, Sophie, Adina, Gilda, Oscar, Juliette, Blondchen, Gretel, Adele, etc. She made her debuts at the London Opera House in London, in 1975, and at the Palais Garnier in Paris, in 1977.
A singer with a radiant voice, polished musicianship, and charming stage presence, she retired in 1991. She is married to former Metropolitan Opera concertmaster Raymond Gniewek.
Among Blegen's recordings are of Menotti's The Medium (with Regina Resnik), Puccini's La bohème (as Musetta, opposite Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, Vicente Sardinero and Ruggero Raimondi, conducted by Sir Georg Solti), Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (as Susanna, with Heather Harper as the Contessa, conducted by Daniel Barenboim), Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (with Robert Shaw conducting) and Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation conducted by Leonard Bernstein on Deutsche Grammophon. She was also a featured soloist on James Levine's Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Grammy award-winning Telarc recording of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, under Robert Shaw. She was the soprano soloist on the album The Angelic Sounds of Christmas: Music for the Glass Armonica. She was also the soprano soloist on the first complete all-digital recording (by RCA Red Seal) of Handel's Messiah, with the Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Richard Westenburg. She is a 1983 recipient of the Montana Governor's Arts Award.[5]