Grace Bumbry

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Grace Bumbry at a 2009 White House reception

Grace Ann Melzia Bumbry (born January 4, 1937 in St. Louis , Missouri ) is an American opera singer ( soprano and mezzo-soprano ). She studied at Boston University , Northwestern University in Evanston (Illinois) and 1955–1958 at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara ( California ). In the international music world she achieved her breakthrough in 1961 at the Bayreuth Festival in the role of Venus in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser . Because of her skin color , she was dubbed "Black Venus". In addition to many Wagner and Verdi roles, she also sang the role of Bess in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess with great success .

Life

Grace Bumbry is the daughter of a railroad worker and a housewife. Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Grace Bumbry was sent to Charles Summer High School by her parents (the first African American high school west of the Mississippi River ).

During her youth, Grace Bumbry sang in the church choir. At the age of 17 she won a radio competition for the first time after performing the Eboli aria "O don fatale" from Verdi's Don Carlos . She also won a degree at the St. Louis Institute of Music, which, however, refused to accept Grace Bumbry because they did not want black students because of racial segregation in the southern states .

An appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scout Program earned her a scholarship to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois , which was sponsored by two patronized families. She then attended Boston University . At the invitation of the German soprano Lotte Lehmann , who emigrated during the Nazi era and whose most important student she became, Bumbry moved to the Music Academy in Stanta Barbara.

In 1958 she won the audio samples at the Metropolitan Opera together with the soprano Martina Arroyo and made her stage debut in Basel, and a year later her concert debut in London. In 1960 she sang Amneris in Verdi's Aida at the Paris Opera . Then Wieland Wagner hired her for the Bayreuth Festival . Grace Bumbry had established herself in Europe with the role of Venus in Wagner's Tannhäuser from 1961. As the first “black Venus” at the Bayreuth Festival (with the Venusberg choreography by Maurice Béjart ), she triggered the press that Wagner had calculated. She was later invited by Jacqueline Kennedy to sing in the White House .

Bumbry temporarily resigned from the opera stage in 1997. In 2007 she sang song and aria evenings a. a. in Kiel, Hamburg, London, Paris, Moscow, Vienna and Tokyo. In spring 2010 she returned to the opera stage after 13 years. Grace Bumbry sang the role of Monisha in Scott Joplin's only opera Treemonisha with Adina Aaron and Willard White at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris . Here she appeared again in spring 2012 with a recital with selected titles by American composers. Shortly afterwards, in March 2012, Grace Bumbry played the role of Old Lady alongside Simone Kermes in the concert premiere of Leonard Bernstein's opera Candide by Leonard Bernstein at the Deutsche Oper Berlin . In January 2013 she sang the Countess in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame for the first time at the Vienna State Opera .

Grace Bumbry gives master classes worldwide. In addition, she has numerous obligations as a juror at singing competitions and as the founder of the vocal and opera academy at the Berlin University of the Arts .

Pitch

Initially committed to mezzo parts, Grace Bumbry soon began to sing soprano parts: Salome , Aida , Tosca and the Lady Macbeth , as well as Norma, Santuzza, Cassandre, Chimène (in Le Cid ), Elisabeth (in Tannhäuser ), Elvira (in Ernani ), Leonora (in Il trovatore ) and the Bess. Other mezzo leading roles in her repertoire were: Dalila, Didon (in Les Troyens ), Herodiade (title role in Massenet's opera of the same name), Laura , Adalgisa, Ulrica, Azucena, Orfeo and Poppea. Grace Bumbry's change to a completely new vocal subject is impressive - from mezzo-soprano to highly dramatic soprano.

Her voice is voluminous, darkly timed and safe in high tones. In addition to studio recordings, live recordings in particular reflect the special character of her voice and reveal the specific dramatic tension that arises from her sense of rhythmic precision and eloquent articulation .

As a song interpreter, Bumbry has performed with various pianists, including Leonard Hokanson , Sebastian Peschko , Erik Werba and, in recent years, Alexander Schmalcz .

Engagements

Honors

Grace Bumbry has been accepted into the Saint Louis “Walk of Fame” since May 17, 1992 , was made an honorary doctorate from Ebner-Rust College Holy Springs (Missouri) and the University of Missouri St. Louis (1980) and participated in UNESCO projects involved (The Slave Route Project). Grace Bumbry received the Alumna Prize from the Akademie Musik des Westens, was awarded the Premio Giuseppe Verdi by Italy and was appointed Commandeur of the Order of the Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1996. In December 2009, she was the US President Barack Obama the prize Kennedy Center Honors (dt. Kennedy Center Honors ) of the Kennedy Center awarded in Washington DC for their lifetime. As part of the Austrian Music Theater Prize 2017 , she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Prize.

CD recordings

DVD recordings

  • Bizet Carmen (role: Carmen) Deutsche Grammophon
  • Verdi Don Carlo (role: Eboli) Deutsche Grammophon
  • Verdi Messa da Requiem EMI
  • Homage to Lotte Lehmann TDK
  • Aida's Brothers & Sisters - Black Voices in Opera and Concert Arthaus

literature

Web links

Commons : Grace Bumbry  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ umsl.edu: Honorary Degree Recipients conferred by the University of Missouri-St. Louis ( Memento of the original from March 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.umsl.edu
  2. ↑ Salzburger Nachrichten: Music Theater Prize: For the first time category for off-music theater . Article dated May 10, 2017, accessed June 1, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Bumbry, Grace
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bumbry, Grace Ann Melzia (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera singer (soprano and mezzo-soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis , Missouri