Camilla Williams

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Camilla Williams photographed by Carl van Vechten in 1946.

Camilla Ella Williams (born October 18, 1919 in Danville , Virginia , † January 29, 2012 in Bloomington , Indiana ) was an American opera singer with a soprano voice .

Life

Williams was born to Cornelius Booker Williams and his wife Fannie Carey Williams. The family lived in modest circumstances. Williams' father worked as a chauffeur and butler in a private household; her mother was employed as a cook by a pastor in the Presbyterian Church . Camilla Williams was the youngest of the Williams couple's three children. Williams also had a biological brother, Cornelius Booker Jr., and a sister, Cornelia. Two other children lived in the household, two girls (Helen and Mary) from the father's first marriage.

In Danville, from the age of eight, Williams sang in various church choirs in the Baptist congregations of which her parents were members. She was a member of the church choir of the Calvary Baptist Church in Danville. At the age of twelve she received her first professional singing lessons from a Welsh singing teacher who gave private lessons to some African-American girls.

She attended the John M. Langston High School in Danville, where in 1937 their high school - made statements. She then went to Virginia State College , where she graduated in 1941. From 1941 she taught first as a primary school teacher and music teacher at the Westmoreland Elementary School in Danville. In 1942 she received a scholarship from the Philadelphia Alumni Association of Virginia State and decided to study singing. She studied singing in Philadelphia with the singing teacher Marion Székély-Freschl ; to make a living, she worked as a cloakroom in a theater in Philadelphia. In 1943 and 1944 she won the Marian Anderson Award for colored singers, which resulted in her first engagements as a concert singer. In 1945 Williams gave her first public concerts, including with the Philadelphia Orchestra . The opera singer Geraldine Farrar , who recognized Williams' talent, was one of her patrons during this time.

In 1946 Williams made her debut as an opera singer at the New York City Center Opera . Her first role there was in May 1946, the title role of Cho-Cho-San in the opera Madama Butterfly . With this debut, Williams was considered the first African-American opera singer to ever appear in a leading role at a major opera house. In 1946 she also sang Nedda in Der Bajazzo during this season . In 1947 she sang Mimi in La Bohème for the first time at the New York City Opera . The title role in Aida followed in 1948 . Thereupon Williams undertook concert tours from 1950 through Central America and the Caribbean , also to Alaska .

In 1954 she made her London debut at Sadler's Wells Opera , again in the title role of Madama Butterfly . In 1955 she appeared at the Vienna State Opera , also in Madama Butterfly ; in November 1956 there followed the title role in Aida . Also in November 1956, she appeared at the Vienna Volksoper up as Annina in the opera The Saint of Bleecker Street (The Saint of Bleecker Street) by Gian Carlo Menotti ; her partner was the tenor Josef Gostic .

As a concert singer, Williams appeared in North Africa (1958/1959), Japan , Korea , Vietnam , Australia and New Zealand (all 1962) and Poland (1974). In 1960 she gave a concert at the White House in the presence of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Japanese Crown Prince Akihito .

In 1971 Williams retired from the opera stage and then worked as a singing professor. From 1970 to 1973, taught Williams singing at Brooklyn College , 1974, the Bronx College and later at Queens College of the City University of New York . From 1977 to 1997 she was a professor of singing at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

Williams died at the age of 92 with her family at her home in Bloomington, Indiana of complications from cancer .

Commitment as a civil rights activist

1950 married Williams the trial lawyer Charles T. Beavers to its clients among other things, the radical civil rights activist Malcolm X was one. The marriage remained childless.

Williams himself was also actively involved in the civil rights movement . Williams was a lifelong member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1963, she performed in her hometown of Danville to raise funds and bail for black civil rights activists in prison. She was "companion" of Martin Luther King . In 1963, accompanied by pianist George Molloy , she sang the American national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner in the White House in Washington, DC before the March on Washington , during which Martin Luther King made his impressive I Have a Dream speech. Williams also sang in 1964 at the ceremony to mark the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martin Luther King.

Audio documents

Williams' audio recordings were mainly published by RCA Victor . In 1950 she sang one of the soprano parts in the recording of Gustav Mahler's 8th Symphony with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski . Her recording of the opera Porgy and Bess from 1951 is now legendary ; under the conductor and George Gershwin specialist Lehman Engel , she sang the title role of Bess in the first complete recording of this opera.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Until Williams' death, 1922 was often given in reference works as the year of birth. This is also the case with Kutsch / Riemens: Large song dictionary . Munich 2003. Volume 5, pp. 5053/5054. ISBN 3-598-11419-2 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Camilla Ella Williams (biography)
  3. ↑ a b c d Camilla Williams dies at 92; opera singer broke racial barriers obituary in Los Angeles Times January 31, 2012
  4. ^ Camilla Williams' list of roles in: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945–2005 , pp. 827/828. Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-85409-449-3
  5. ↑ a b c Civil rights activist: Opera singer Camilla Williams dies Obituary in: DIE ZEIT from January 31, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Williams, Camilla
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Camilla Ella (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Danville , Virginia, United States
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 2012
Place of death Bloomington (Indiana) , United States