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Shirley
Verrett, a black American mezzo-soprano who often enjoyed forrays
into the world of soprano, enjoyed one of the most glamorous
operatic careers of the last 50 years. Following in the footsteps
of Marian Anderson and on the heels of
Leontyne Price's breakthroughs for
African-American singers, the stunningly beautiful singing actress was
the first black singer invited to sing at Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, in the
role of Carmen, and when a Texas orchestra's board refused Leopold
Stokowski's request to hire her, he pointedly booked her for his return
to the Philadelphia Orchestra. She starred as Cassandra
in a 1973 Met production of Berlioz's Les Troyens, and made
international headlines by turning around and going on in the even
bigger role of Dido in the same night, after a colleague fell sick. She
now teaches at the University of Michigan, and her last high-profile
appearance was as Nettie Fowler in the 1994 Broadway revival of Rodgers
& Hammerstein's Carousel, opposite fellow Juilliard alum
Audra McDonald. She struggled
not only against racism, but with allergies, her parents'
fundamentalism, turning down the lead role in the film Diva, and
a rivalry with Grace Ann Bumbry, another beautiful and talented Black
American mezzo-turned-soprano. |
