6 Black singers who broke operatic barriers

6 Black singers who broke operatic barriers

Welcome to CODA! Coda comes from the Latin word for “tail,” and in music, it indicates an additional passage at the end of a piece of music, a final flourish that compliments what’s come before. CODA goes beyond the curtain call to explore this unique and astonishing art form. Whether you’re a first-time opera goer or a seasoned audience member, CODA is for you. Bi-weekly, we’ll enhance your experience of opera with behind-the-scenes highlights, educational articles, listening lists, and much, much more! 


“In truth, I knew of a certainty before I launched my career that my blackness would play a role covertly or overtly wherever and whenever I appear onstage in an operatic role. I, like every performer, wished to be assessed, accepted, or rejected on my artist merits alone.” — George Shirley


Today, many opera companies in the United States are making efforts to tell Black stories on stage and to diversify their artist roster, but the operatic stage hasn’t always been welcoming. Due to prevailing attitudes of racism in the United States, Black classical singers were blocked from singing with major American opera companies until the 1940s. In the 19th and early 20th century, singers like Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, Sissieretta Jones, and Roland Hayes found great celebrity in the concert arena. Others performed with opera companies, such as the Theodore Drury Opera Company, the National Negro Opera Company, Opera Ebony, and Opera South, which were founded by African Americans to provide performance opportunities for African American singers. 

In the 1940s and 50s, Black singers began to make important debuts on international stages. These pioneering singers broke the longstanding color barrier, paving the way for the next generations of artists. These are just some of the courageous artists who changed the landscape of opera.


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Todd Duncan

Todd Duncan

When George Gershwin was preparing for the premiere of Porgy and Bess, he was unhappy with the 100 baritones who auditioned for the role of Porgy. He eventually learned about Todd Duncan, and after 12 bars, Gershwin knew he had found his Porgy. Duncan’s place in opera history was secured on September 30, 1935, when he created the role of Porgy in the world premiere of Porgy and Bess in Boston. He subsequently sang it in the Broadway premiere 10 days later.

As notable as this accomplishment was for Duncan, perhaps even more notable was when he sang the role of Tonio in Pagliacci with the New York City Opera in 1945. With that performance, he became the first African American to sing a featured role with a prominent American opera company. He would go on to sing Escamillo in Carmen as well as Rigoletto with the company. Duncan’s primary artistic focus, however, was as a recitalist. He sang some 2,000 recitals in 56 countries over the course of a career that lasted more than 25 years.

Essential listening: "Lost in the Stars" from Lost in the Stars (Kurt Weill)


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Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson

Contralto Marian Anderson is, undoubtedly, one of the most celebrated classical singers in the 20th century. Anderson mostly sang in concert and recital, but made one groundbreaking operatic appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955, as Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, when she became the Met's first Black soloist. Anderson conquered Europe by the mid 1930s, more than 20 years before her Met debut, giving 142 concerts from September 1933 to April 1934 alone. Her appearance at Austria’s Salzburg Festival in 1935 was abruptly canceled due to "a 'non-Aryan' rule", but a privately-arranged concert took place at the Hotel de l’Europe instead. The success of the Salzburg concert was so great that word soon spread to the U.S. 

Anderson’s most iconic performance came over a decade before her Metropolitan Opera debut. After the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Anderson sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C, the media was sent into a frenzy. Eventually, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR over its refusal to allow Anderson to perform in its hall. She aided in making arrangements for Anderson to perform in a critically-acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. 

Essential listening: The Star-Spangled Banner


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George Shirley

Detroit native George Shirley paved the way for many young African American tenors in the industry, and not just on the operatic stage. In 1955, he became the first African American to serve as a high school music teacher in Detroit. His first public opera performance, Die Fledermaus, took place in 1959 with a small Woodstock, NY opera company. A year later, George won the American Opera Auditions and was offered the role of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème in Milan, Italy. He was the first Black singer to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1961, as well as the first African American tenor to sing a leading role at the Met when he made his debut there as Ferrando in Così fan tutte later that year. 

Shirley would go on to sing 28 roles in 26 operas during his 11 seasons at the Met. In a career that spans more than 50 years, Shirley performed more than 80 operatic roles with many of the world’s most renowned conductors. He eventually joined the voice faculty at University of Maryland and later assumed the position as Director of Vocal Arts at University of Michigan. In 2015, he was presented a National Medal of the Arts from then-President of the United States Barack Obama.

Essential listening: "Un'aura amorosa" from Così fan tutte (Mozart)


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Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price 

Perhaps no American opera singer in history has achieved as much universal respect as soprano Leontyne Price. Born in Laurel, Mississippi in 1927, Price's career began as a student at The Juilliard School, where her performance as Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff in 1952 garnered her early acclaim. The door to opera opened through the young medium of television and the NBC Opera Theatre, with music director Peter Herman Adler. In January 1955, Price sang the title role in Puccini's Tosca, the first appearance by an African American in a leading role in televised opera. When Rudolph Bing invited Price in 1958 to sing Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, she turned him down on the advice of Adler and others. Adler warned against arriving in the racially stereotypical role of Aida, an enslaved Ethiopian woman, saying, "Leontyne is to be a great artist. When she makes her debut at the Met, she must do it as a lady, not a slave." Eventually, the Metropolitan booked her for five roles in early 1961, Leonora in Il trovatore for her debut, Aida, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Liù in Turandot, and Madama Butterfly.

In 1966, Price sang at the inaugural performance at the new Metropolitan Opera house at Lincoln Center, starring as Cleopatra in the world premiere of Barber's Antony and Cleopatra. She would eventually sing 201 performances at the Met in 16 productions, and has also been honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kennedy Center Honor, the National Medal of Arts and many more. After her retirement from opera, she continued to appear in recitals and orchestral concerts until 1997. After that, she would come out of retirement to sing at special events, including a memorial concert for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks at Carnegie Hall, in 2001. She can be seen in Susan Froemke's 2017 documentary The Opera House. Last week, on February 10th, Price celebrated her 96th birthday.

Essential listening: "Pace, pace, mio Dio" from La forza del desinto (Verdi)


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Robert McFerrin

Robert McFerrin

Baritone Robert McFerrin (father of the GRAMMY Award-winner Bobby McFerrin), notably made his Metropolitan Opera debut just 20 days after Marian Anderson’s debut. Prior to his debut, he sang regularly with the National Negro Opera Company and the New York City Opera in the 1940s and 1950s. A crucial step in McFerrin’s career occurred in 1953, when he won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air. It was not uncommon at the time for winners of the prestigious competition to subsequently receive contracts with the company, but no Black singer had yet performed on the Met stage. 

Finally, on January 27, 1955, Robert McFerrin became the first African American male singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera, appearing as Amonasro in Aida. Although Anderson’s debut preceded McFerrin’s by 20 days, he had already been under contract when Anderson was signed. Thus, McFerrin was the first black singer to receive a contract with the Met. He sang with the Met for three more years as Amonasro, Valentin, and Rigoletto, but performances came sparingly, so he left the company and headed for California. While there, he provided the singing voice for Sidney Poitier’s Porgy in the 1959 film adaptation of Porgy and Bess, and he continued to perform and began to teach.

Essential listening: "Pari siamo" from Rigoletto (Verdi)


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Camilla Williams

Camilla Williams

Todd Duncan’s 1945 groundbreaking debut at New York City Opera had been enabled by the young company’s first music director, Laszlo Halasz, who also facilitated another milestone. On May 15, 1946, Camilla Williams sang the title role in Madama Butterfly with New York City Opera. That night, she became the first African American woman to appear with a major opera company in the U.S. After receiving excellent reviews. Williams went on to sing Nedda in Pagliacci, Mimì in La bohème, Marguerite in Faust, Micaëla in Carmen, and Aida with City Opera. She was not the first black artist to sing with a major American opera company, but she was the first to receive a regular contract with one.

In 1943, Williams tied for the inaugural Marian Anderson Award; she entered again the next year and won it outright. Anderson would prove to be a faithful mentor to Williams. Williams took her Butterfly to the Vienna State Opera in 1954 and, in doing so, became the first African American artist to sing a major role with that venerable company. Her career was full of many other “firsts” and was punctuated with numerous honors and awards. In 1977, Williams became the first black professor of voice at Indiana University, where she remained until 1997.

Essential listening: "Ritorna vincitor" from Aida (Verdi) 


These are only a few of the many singers who changed opera in the United States and abroad. Take the time to research these and other incredible artists of today and yesteryear, both their stories and their artistry. You’ll be glad you did. 


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