In this live-audience recording, author of Black Opera Naomi André and bass opera singer Morris Robinson—star of Cincinnati Opera’s 2019 production of Porgy and Bess—sit down with Evans to discuss the African American operatic experience.
Show Notes
Naomi André attended Westtown School
Eric Mitchko is the General Director of North Carolina Opera.
The Magic Flute is an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera by Richard Strauss.
Tatiana Troyanos was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent, remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation" (Boston Globe).
Dame Gwyneth Jones is a Welsh operatic dramatic soprano.
Kathleen Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone.
Khovanshchina is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky.
Dialogues des Carmélites is an opera divided into twelve scenes with linking orchestral interludes by Francis Poulenc.
Manon Lescaut is an opera by Giacomo Puccini.
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer and recitalist.
Sieglinde is a character in Die Walküre, the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Leona Mitchell is an American operatic soprano and an Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductee.
Mimì is a character in the opera La Bohème, composed by Giacomo Puccini.
Martina Arroyo is an American operatic soprano who had a major international opera career from the 1960s through the 1980s. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers of Puerto Rican descent to achieve wide success, and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world.
Aida is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a New Zealand soprano.
The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand.
Nabucco is an Italian-language opera composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi.
Samuel Ramey is an American operatic bass.
Andrea Gruber is an American dramatic soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner.
James Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is primarily known for his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, a position he held for 40 years.
Alfred Walker is an American operatic bass-baritone.
Michèle Crider is an American lirico spinto operatic soprano.
Mark Rucker, baritone, serves as professor of voice at MSU's College of Music.
Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin.
Fidelio is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera.
Marian Anderson was an American contralto singer, one of the most celebrated of the twentieth century.
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, dubbed "The Black Swan" (a play on Jenny Lind's sobriquet, "The Swedish Nightingale,” was an African-American singer considered the best-known black concert artist of her time.
James Alan Bland, also known as Jimmy Bland, was an African-American musician and song writer.
Thomas Dartmouth Rice, known professionally as Daddy Rice, was an American performer and playwright who performed blackface and used African American vernacular speech, song and dance to become one of the most popular minstrel show entertainers of his time.
"Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" is a popular song commonly sung by blackface performers in the 19th century.
Prada S.p.A. is an Italian luxury fashion house, specializing in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, perfumes and other fashion accessories, founded in 1913 by Mario Prada.
Gucci is an Italian luxury brand of fashion and leather goods. Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Tuscany, in 1921.
Ralph Shearer Northam is an American politician and physician serving as the Governor of Virginia.
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, was an American soprano. She sometimes was called "The Black Patti", a reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti.
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence.
Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat and activist, and served as First Lady of the United States.
Rosa Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott.
Mattiwilda Dobbs was an African-American coloratura soprano and one of the first black singers to enjoy a major international career in opera.
Lillian Evanti was an African-American opera singer.
Mary Lucinda Cardwell Dawson was an African-American musician and teacher and the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company.
Theodore Drury, born in Kentucky, was a singer and music promoter.
Dr. Kristen Turner’s work has been published in the Journal of the Society for American Music, and the Journal of Musicological Research. Her research interests are in 19th century opera, 19th and 20th century American musical culture, African American music, music and politics, and music and gender.
Sir Rudolf Bing, KBE was an Austrian-born opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1950 to 1972.
Ulrica is a character in the opera Un ballo in maschera, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
RCA Studio B is a music recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee built in 1956. Originally known simply by the name “RCA Studios”, it became known in the 1960s for being an essential factor to the development of the production style and technique known as the Nashville Sound.
“O don fatale” is an aria from the opera Les Troyens, a French grand opera by Hector Berlioz.
Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal is a French grand opera by Gaetano Donizetti.
Leontyne Price is an American soprano. She rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the first African American to become a leading performer, or prima donna, at the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the most popular American classical singers of her generation.
William Warfield was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.
Alice Ford is a character in the opera Falstaff.
Donna Anna is a character in the opera Don Giovanni.
Franco Corelli was an Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976.
Il Trovatore is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
Madame Butterfly is an opera by Giacomo Puccini.
Liù is a character in the opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini.
The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi.
Joe is a character in the musical Show Boat by Jerome Kern.
La Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy.
Otello is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
Russell Thomas is an American operatic tenor.
Robert Spano is an American conductor and pianist.
Francesca Zambello is an American opera and theatre director. She serves as General Director of The Glimmerglass Festival and Artistic Director of the Washington National Opera.
The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927.
Götterdämmerung is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Treemonisha is an opera by African-American composer Scott Joplin, who is most noted for his ragtime piano works.
Harry Lawrence Freeman was a United States opera composer, conductor, impresario and teacher. He was the first African-American to write an opera (Epthalia, 1891) that was successfully produced.
Voodoo is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Harry Lawrence Freeman.
William Menefield is a Cincinnati-born composer. His work Fierce will be premiere at Cincinnati Opera in 2021.
Sheila Williams is the author of Dancing on the Edge of the Roof, On the Right Side of a Dream, The Shade of My Own Tree and Girls Most Likely.