Grace Bumbry

A trailblazer in the operatic world, mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry was the first singer of color to appear at the Bayreuth Festival and was the first African American opera singer to perform in the White House. Inspired as a child by attending Marian Anderson concerts, Bumbry would continue the legacy of that famed singer. Bumbry was born in St. Louis, Missouri on January 4, 1937. As a youth, she sang in church choirs. In 1955, she entered Northwestern University, where she studied voice with the great Lotte Lehman, and transferred with her to the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. In 1958, Bumbry was a joint winner of the Metropolitan Opera auditions, sharing first place with Martina Arroyo. She won several other prizes and made her professional debut in a recital in London in 1959. Her first operatic appearance was at the Paris Opéra as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida. It was one of the most spectacular operatic debuts in history; Bumbry became an instant star and was invited to join the roster of the Basle Opera. She made operatic history in 1961 when she was engaged by Wieland Wagner to sing at the Bayreuth Festival and became the first Black singer to perform in the shrine of Wagnerian opera. Furthermore, musical historian Nicolas Slonimsky pointed out that she was the first Black woman to make a professional operatic appearance as a goddess with her debut at Bayreuth as Venus in Tannhäuser on July 23, 1961. Bumbry embarked on a concert tour of the U.S. and was invited by Jacqueline Kennedy to sing at the White House on February 20, 1962. She also followed up her smash success at Bayreuth with appearances as Venus at the Chicago Lyric Opera and at Lyons, France. Bumbry’s 1963 London debut came in the role of Princess Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlos, and she gave her first Metropolitan Opera performance in the same role in 1965. Among the other roles she undertook were those of Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth and Carmen in Bizet’s opera. She had unequivocally established what should have been obvious 30 years earlier in connection with her great predecessor Marian Anderson: namely, that vocal artistry, not race, matters in the casting of operatic roles. During the 1960s, Bumbry worked on extending her range. In 1970, at the Vienna Staatsoper, she sang the part of Santuzza, making her debut as a soprano. She sang Richard Strauss’ Salome at Covent Garden the same year, and her first appearance in Puccini’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera came in 1971. She maintained her mezzo voice while triumphing in soprano parts, such as Jenufa in Janacek’s opera and as Ariane in Dukas’ Bluebeard. Between operatic performances, she established a fine recital career, stressing the core repertory of German lieder. Her attractions as a performer included a commanding stage presence with an effective and understated acting technique. She had a very warm voice with rich tone quality throughout the mezzo range, although it lost some of its distinctiveness in the very upper part of her soprano register. She was among the few sopranos who sang both the roles of Aida and Amneris in Aida and both Venus and Elisabeth in Wagner’s Tannhäuser. After appearing in a 1997 production of Richard Strauss’ Elektra in Lyon, Bumbry retired from operatic roles and became a voice teacher and performed occasional recitals. In 2010, she made a comeback in a Parisian production of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, and three years later, she was cast in a Vienna Staatsoper staging of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, appearing as the Countess. In October 2022, Bumbry, who was living in Vienna, was traveling to New York City to be inducted into Opera America’s Opera Hall of Fame when she suffered a stroke during her flight. She never fully recovered, and after months in various care facilities, she died in Vienna on May 7, 2023; she was 86 years old. ~ Joseph Stevenson & Keith Finke