American opera singer (1937?2023)
Grace Bumbry
|
---|
|
Born
| Grace Melzia Bumbry
(
1937-01-04
)
January 4, 1937
|
---|
Died
| May 7, 2023
(2023-05-07)
(aged 86)
Vienna, Austria
|
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Occupation
| Opera singer
|
---|
Years active
| 1958?2023
|
---|
Spouse
|
Edwin Jaeckel
(
m.
1963;
div.
1972)
|
---|
Awards
| |
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Grace Melzia Bumbry
(January 4, 1937 ? May 7, 2023) was an American opera singer, considered one of the leading
mezzo-sopranos
of her generation, who also ventured to
soprano
roles. She belonged to a pioneering generation of African-American classical singers, led by
Marian Anderson
. She was recognized internationally when
Wieland Wagner
cast her for the 1961
Bayreuth Festival
as Venus in
Tannhauser
, the first black singer to appear at the festival.
Bumbry's voice was rich and dynamic, possessing a wide range, and was capable of producing a very distinctive plangent tone. In her prime, she also possessed good agility and
bel canto
technique, as for example her rendition of Eboli in Verdi's
Don Carlo
in the 1970s and 1980s. She was particularly noted for her fiery temperament and dramatic intensity on stage. Later, she also became known as a recitalist and interpreter of
lieder
, and as a teacher. From the late 1980s on, she concentrated her career in Europe, rather than in the United States. A long-time resident of Switzerland, she spent her last years in Vienna.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Grace Ann Melzia Bumbry was born in
St. Louis
, Missouri, on January 4, 1937.
[1]
[2]
She was the third child of Benjamin Bumbry, a railroad freight handler, and Melzia Bumbry, a teacher.
[2]
They were a family of modest means, deeply religious and highly musical.
[3]
Bumbry trained in classical piano beginning at age 7, but determined she would become a singer after seeing
Marian Anderson
in concert.
[4]
[5]
She joined the local Methodist choir at age 12, and performed as a soloist in school production of Handels
Messiah
. She listened to Anderson on radio and in recordings "at every opportunity",
[6]
and was also inspired to become a singer listening to the
St. Louis Symphony
conducted by
Vladimir Golschmann
.
[6]
Bumbry graduated from the prestigious
Charles Sumner High School
, the first black high school west of the
Mississippi
.
[7]
She later credited Kenneth Billups, her voice teacher at Sumner (together with a later teacher, Armand Tokatyan of Santa Barbara) for her "vocal prowess". At age 17, at the urging of Billups and Sara Hopes, her choir director, she entered and won a teen talent contest sponsored by St. Louis radio station
KMOX
. Prizes for first place included a $1,000
war bond
, a trip to New York, and a scholarship to the St. Louis Institute of Music. However, the institution
excluded African Americans
, and her parents refused the offer of private lessons instead.
[6]
Embarrassed, the contest promoters arranged for her to appear on
Arthur Godfrey
's national radio broadcast
Talent Scouts
program, singing Verdi's aria "O don fatale" from
Don Carlos
. It moved Godfrey to tears.
[6]
The success of that performance led to an opportunity to study at
Boston University College of Fine Arts
.
[3]
She later transferred to
Northwestern University
,
[1]
where she met
Lotte Lehmann
, a German dramatic soprano, especially for
Wagner
roles, who gave master classes there and was impressed.
Lehmann invited Bumbry to study with her in
Santa Barbara, California
. Initially planned for just the summer of 1955, Bumbry remained on a scholarship by Lehmann
[6]
for three and a half years. During this time, she studied piano and theory (with
Gyorgy Sandor
),
[4]
and then studied further interpretation and languages, and attended the summer programm of the
Music Academy of the West
in
Montecito
in three consecutive years, 1956, 57 and 58.
[8]
Lehmann was also her mentor in her early career.
[6]
[9]
Bumbry also studied with renowned teachers
Marinka Gurewich
[10]
and
Armand Tokatyan
.
[11]
[12]
She studied singing lieder with
Pierre Bernac
in Paris.
[1]
Career
[
edit
]
In 1958, she was a joint winner of the
Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions
with soprano
Martina Arroyo
;
[4]
[6]
later that year, she made her recital debut in Paris. Bumbry made her operatic debut in 1960 when she sang Amneris in Verdi's
Aida
at the
Paris Opera
;
[1]
[4]
that same year she joined the
Basel Opera
,
[13]
where she was based for four years.
[1]
Her roles there included Bizet's
Carmen
, Dalila in
Samson et Dalila
by
Saint-Saens
, Orfeo in Gluck's
Orfeo ed Euridice
, and Verdi's
Lady Macbeth
and Azucena.
[6]
International popularity
[
edit
]
Bumbry gained international renown when she was cast by
Wieland Wagner
, Wagner's grandson, as Venus in
Tannhauser
at the 1961
Bayreuth Festival
,
[14]
at age 24, the first black singer to appear there, which earned her the nickname "Black Venus".
[4]
[6]
[15]
The cast included
Victoria de los Angeles
as Elisabeth,
Wolfgang Windgassen
in the title role,
[16]
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
as Wolfram, and the opera was conducted by
Wolfgang Sawallisch
.
[6]
She caused a sensation;
[6]
while conservative opera-goers were outraged at the idea, Bumbry's performance was so moving that by the end of the opera she had won the audience over and they applauded for 30 minutes, necessitating 42
curtain calls
.
[6]
[17]
The ensuing furor in the media made Bumbry an international
cause celebre
. She was invited by
Jacqueline Kennedy
to sing at the
White House
in 1962.
[6]
[18]
She returned to the White House in 1981, singing at the
Ronald Reagan inauguration
.
[19]
In November 1962, she starred in the title role of the musical
Carmen Jones
in a studio cast album recorded in London with British performers and an orchestra conducted by
Kenneth Alwyn
.
[20]
Bumbry made her debut at the
Royal Opera House
in London in 1963 as Eboli, alongside
Boris Christoff
as the king and
Tito Gobbi
as Posa, in a 1958 production by
Luchino Visconti
. In 1964, she made her debut at the
Vienna State Opera
as Santuzza in Mascagni's
Cavalleria rusticana
,
[4]
and at the
Salzburg Festival
as Verdi's Lady Macbeth, opposite Fischer-Dieskau's Macbeth.
[6]
[21]
She made her debut at the
Metropolitan Opera
in New York City in 1965, again as Eboli.
[1]
[6]
A reviewer noted:
She sang the 'veil song' beautifully with a light coloration not easy for mezzos to come by, but she also had the full range of stops to make "O Don Fatale" an experience in musical drama rather than merely an exercise in vocal agility.
[6]
In 1966 she appeared as Carmen opposite
Jon Vickers
's Don Jose in two different lauded productions, one with conductor
Herbert von Karajan
in Salzburg,
[6]
and the other for her debut with the
San Francisco Opera
.
[22]
She first appeared at
La Scala
in Milan as Azucena.
[4]
She returned to the San Francisco Opera in 1967 for her first performance of Laura Adorno in Ponchielli's
La Gioconda
alongside
Leyla Gencer
in the title role,
Renato Cioni
as Enzo Grimaldi,
Maureen Forrester
as La Cieca and
Chester Ludgin
as Barnaba.
[23]
Other major mezzo-soprano roles in her repertoire included the title role in Massenet's
Herodiade
, Ulrica in Verdi's
Un ballo in maschera
, and the title role of
Telemaco
. In 1990, she appeared as both Cassandre and Didon in
Les Troyens
by Berlioz for the opening of the Opera Bastille in Paris.
[1]
[6]
Soprano roles
[
edit
]
In the 1970s, Bumbry, having recorded many soprano arias, began taking on soprano roles on stage. The first official soprano role was
Salome
by Richard Strauss at the Royal Opera House in 1970.
[1]
[4]
[6]
She first appeared as Puccini's
Tosca
at the Metropolitan Opera in 1971, and then at La Scala in 1974.
[1]
Later roles at the Metropolitan Opera included Leonora in both
Il trovatore
and
La forza del destino
and Bess in Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess
.
[4]
[6]
She also took on more unusual roles, such as Jana?ek's
Jen?fa
(in Italian) at La Scala in 1974, with
Magda Olivero
as the Kostelni?ka, and Ariane in
Ariane et Barbe-bleue
by Paul Dukas in Paris in 1975. Bumbry first appeared as Norma in 1977 in
Martina Franca
, Italy.
[24]
The following year, she sang both Adalgisa and Norma in the same production at the Royal Opera House, first opposite
Montserrat Caballe
as Norma; later with
Josephine Veasey
as Adalgisa.
[2]
She first performed as Selika in Meyerbeer's
L'Africaine
in London in 1978.
[1]
She also assumed roles such as Abigaille in Verdi's
Nabucco
and La Gioconda.
[1]
Other noted soprano roles included Chimene in
Le Cid
, Elisabeth in
Tannhauser
, and Elvira in Verdi's
Ernani
.
[25]
[26]
Later career
[
edit
]
In the 1990s, Bumbry founded the Grace Bumbry Black Musical Heritage Ensemble, a group devoted to preserving and performing traditional Negro spirituals;
[1]
[27]
she toured with the group.
[27]
She then devoted herself to teaching, judging international competitions, and to the concert stage, giving a series of recitals in 2001 and 2002 in honor of her teacher,
Lotte Lehmann
, including at the
Theatre du Chatelet
in Paris, London's
Wigmore Hall
and New York's
Alice Tully Hall
.
[28]
She was sometimes accompanied by pianist
Sebastian Peschko
.
[29]
[30]
In 2010, after an absence of many years from the opera stage, she performed in Scott Joplin's
Treemonisha
at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris,
[31]
She appeared at the
Deutsche Oper Berlin
as the Old Lady in Bernstein's
Candide
in 2012,
[6]
and finally as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's
Pique Dame
at the Vienna State Opera on January 30, 2013,
[32]
conducted by
Seiji Ozawa
.
[6]
Her advice to young singers was:
[
relevant?
]
To strive for excellence, that's the answer. If you strive for excellence, that means that you are determined. You will find a way to get to your goal, even if it means having to turn down some really great offers. You have to live with that, as you have to live with yourself.
[33]
[34]
Personal life and death
[
edit
]
In 1963, Bumbry married the Polish-born tenor Erwin Jaeckel.
[1]
[6]
They divorced in 1972.
[35]
Jack V. Lunzer
, her long-term partner, died in 2016.
[6]
On October 20, 2022, Bumbry was on a flight from Vienna to New York when she had a stroke. Her health declined over the following months, and she died from related complications at a hospital in Vienna on May 7, 2023, at age 86.
[6]
[32]
[35]
Vocal range
[
edit
]
Bumbry's career in the world of opera was a remarkable and long one, if somewhat controversial. Initially, Bumbry began her career as a mezzo-soprano, but later expanded her repertoire to include many dramatic
soprano
roles. In the mid-1970s and 1980s she considered herself a soprano; but in the 1990s, as her career approached its twilight, she often returned to mezzo roles.
[25]
She was one of the more successful singers who have made the transition from mezzo-soprano to soprano
[36]
(along with her compatriot and contemporary
Shirley Verrett
, as well as contemporary Welsh mezzo-sorano-turned-soprano
Gwyneth Jones
); however, audiences and critics were divided over whether she was a "true" soprano. Nonetheless, she sang major soprano roles at most major opera houses around the world up until the end of her operatic career in the 1990s?singing Puccini's
Turandot
at the Royal Opera House in 1993. Her main operatic career spanned from 1960, her debut in Paris as Amneris, to 1997 as Klytamnestra in Lyon.
[1]
Recordings
[
edit
]
Bumbry's earliest recordings are of
oratorios
made in the late 1950s with the
Utah Symphony
conducted by
Maurice Abravanel
,
[6]
including Handel's
Israel in Egypt
and
Judas Maccabeus
.
[29]
[37]
She recorded Handel's
Messiah
[1]
in London in 1961
[29]
conducted by
Adrian Boult
, alongside
Joan Sutherland
and
Kenneth McKellar
.
[6]
In aria compilations, she included both mezzo and soprano repertoire early.
[29]
Much of her recorded legacy is from her mezzo period, including at least two recordings of
Carmen
[38]
[39]
and recordings with her as Amneris,
[1]
Venus (with
Anja Silja
as Elisabeth, from the 1962 Bayreuth Festival), Eboli, Abigaille, Orfeo, Lady Macbeth (from the 1984 Salzburg Festival),
[1]
and in Verdi's
Messa da Requiem
at the
Royal Festival Hall
in April 1964.
[40]
While there are no commercially released complete studio opera recordings with her in a soprano role, live performances were recorded of
Le Cid
(with the Opera Orchestra of New York),
[1]
[41]
Jen?fa
at La Scala,
[1]
and
Norma
in Martina Franca.
[29]
[42]
She also recorded music for the musical
Carmen Jones
, based on the Bizet opera;
[43]
as well as operetta such as
Der Zigeunerbaron
by Johann Strauß.
[37]
Videos
[
edit
]
Honors
[
edit
]
Among other honors, a
UNESCO
Award, five Distinguished Alumna Awards from the Music Academy of the West and Italy's Premio Giuseppe Verdi were bestowed on Bumbry and she was named
Commandeur des Arts et Lettres
by the
French government
.
[25]
She received a
Grammy Award
in 1972 for
Best Opera Recording
.
[25]
[44]
In 1992, Bumbry was inducted into the
St. Louis Walk of Fame
.
[45]
In 2005, she was presented with The Arts for Life Lifetime Achievement Award by the
Marian Anderson Award Foundation
.
[46]
In December 2009, she was among those honored with the 2009
Kennedy Center Honors
, for her contribution to the performing arts.
[47]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
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h
i
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n
o
p
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Kutsch, K.-J.
;
Riemens, Leo
(2012).
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.
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(in German) (4th ed.).
De Gruyter
. pp. 644?645.
ISBN
978-3-59-844088-5
.
- ^
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b
c
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.
The Kennedy Center
. Retrieved
May 9,
2023
.
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Bailey, Peter (December 1973). "Grace Bumbry: Singing Is Terrific?But Living Is an Art".
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(2): 67?75.
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Kesting, Jurgen
(May 8, 2023).
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(in German)
. Retrieved
May 10,
2023
.
- ^
Gates, Brandon (May 8, 2023).
"Grace Bumbry, a trailblazing Black opera singer, has died at age 86"
.
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. Retrieved
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"Black History in St. Louis"
,
The New York Times
, May 10, 1992. Accessed December 11, 2007. "Sumner High School, the first school west of the Mississippi for blacks, established in 1875 (among graduates are Grace Bumbry, Arthur Ashe and Tina Turner)..."
- ^
"Alumni Search ? Music Academy"
.
musicacademy.org
. Retrieved
May 17,
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The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music
, edited by
Don Michael Randel
(Belknap Press, 1996), pp. 117?118.
- ^
"Marinka Gurewich, A Voice Teacher, 88"
.
The New York Times
. December 25, 1990
. Retrieved
May 9,
2023
.
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Movshon, George (January 2, 1977).
"Grace Melzia Bumbry ? From Playgirl to Soprano"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
May 9,
2023
.
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Joy, Neemee (May 8, 2023).
"Grace Bumbry, American opera singer has died at age 86"
.
SNBC13.com
. Retrieved
May 9,
2023
.
- ^
Shapiro, Yehuda (January 2007). "Amazing Grace".
Opera
. Vol. 58, no. 1. pp. 20?23.
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(in German). 2023
. Retrieved
May 12,
2023
.
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Miller, Sarah Bryan (May 8, 2016).
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.
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. Retrieved
February 24,
2019
.
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Shengold, David (July 2015).
"Wagner:
Tannhauser
"
.
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"Barack Obama honours Bruce Springsteen at White House"
,
BBC News
, December 7, 2009. Accessed December 7, 2009. "Rock star Bruce Springsteen was presented with a Kennedy Center honour by President Barack Obama at a White House reception on Sunday. Actor Robert De Niro, comic Mel Brooks, jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck and opera singer Grace Bumbry were also honoured..."
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Williams, Alex (May 8, 2023).
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.
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. p. 78.
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Before taking over for the NDR department of Chamber Music and Song he was a successful pianist and accompanied such greats as Grace Bumbry...
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Nash, Elizabeth (2007).
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
a
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Blum, Richard (May 8, 2023).
"Grace Bumbry, 1st Black singer at Bayreuth, dies at 86"
.
Associated Press
. Retrieved
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- ^
Salazar, David (January 4, 2019).
"Artist Profile: Grace Bumbry, Pioneering Mezzo & Soprano"
.
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Tolansky, Jon (May 9, 2023).
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.
Gramophone
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Tolansky, Jon.
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.
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.
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Further reading
[
edit
]
- Hamilton, David (1987).
The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Guide to the World of Opera
. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo: Simon and Schuster. pp. 58?59.
ISBN
0-671-61732-X
.
- Hamilton, Mary (1990).
A?Z of Opera
. New York, Oxford, Sydney: Facts On File. p. 38.
ISBN
0-8160-2340-9
.
- Rosenthal, Harold
and
John Warrack
(1979; 2nd ed.).
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera
. London, New York and Melbourne: Oxford University Press. p. 70.
ISBN
0-19-311318-X
.
- Sadie, Stanley
and Christina Bashford (1992).
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
. London: Macmillan. Vol. 1, p. 639.
ISBN
0-935859-92-6
.
- Sadie, Stanley and
John Tyrrell
(2001).
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
. London: Macmillan. Vol. 4, pp. 601?02.
ISBN
0-333-60800-3
.
- Warrack, John
and Ewan West (1996; 3rd ed.).
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera
. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 69.
ISBN
0-19-280028-0
External links
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