And So I SingBlack women bring a host of influences and ideologies with them to opera -- as well as their spirituality, their strengths and passions. The exclusion of blacks from opera for so many generations impoverished both the artists and the artistic world from which they were barred. Imagine if Leontyne Price had been born 50 years earlier, during a time when she would not have been allowed on an American opera stage. This book not only supplies portraits of the greatest artists for future generations of students of black art and culture, but also rescues from history's shadows the lost legacies of geniuses born too soon. Photos. |
Contents
1 Sissieretta Jones | 1 |
2 Pioneers and Pathfinders | 20 |
The Voice of a Century | 37 |
A Musical Awakening | 59 |
5 Dorothy Maynor and the MidCentury Divas | 76 |
Prima Donna Assoluta | 100 |
7 Martina Arroyo and a New Firmament of Stars | 115 |
Modern Diva | 141 |
Artist and Maverick | 157 |
A Digression on the Black Church and the Spiritual | 171 |
Vocal and Visual | 183 |
Other editions - View all
And So I Sing: African American Divas Of Opera and Concert Rosalyn M. Story No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Aida American aria Arroyo audience audition Barbara Hendricks baritone became began Bing black artists black diva Black Patti black singers born Brice Broadway Bumbry's career Carmen Carol Brice Chicago choir chorus church Clarey classical color concert artist conductor critics debut Dobbs donna Dorothy Maynor dramatic early Europe European Evanti Four Saints Gershwin Grace Bumbry Greenfield Harlem Hayes heard Hendricks Hurok Il Trovatore Jubilee Singers Juilliard later Lehmann Leontyne Price Lieder lyric major Marian Anderson Mattiwilda Dobbs Metropolitan Opera mezzo Mitchell mother Negro never Norman Olin Downes Opera Company Opera House orchestra performance Philadelphia piano played popular Porgy and Bess production racial repertory role Rudolf Bing sang Selika Shirley Verrett singing Sissieretta Jones songs soprano sound spirituals stage star student studied success Symphony talent teacher theater Thomson tour Town Hall Vechten Virgil Thomson vocal voice Washington woman wrote York