African-American singer Grace Bumbry has died

Grace Bumbry was the first black singer to perform at the Bayreuth Festival in 1961. She died at the age of 86.

She was a pioneer. Sunday 7 May, Grace Bumbrithe first black singer to sing at the Bayreuth Festival in 1961, died aged 86.

The singer had suffered a stroke in October, in New York, when she was to receive an award in her honor. She died in a hospital in Vienna, her adoptive city, of complications, according to her adopted son David Lee Brewer, quoted by the news agency. abdominal muscles.

A pioneer of opera music

Born on January 4, 1937, she was a child when she attended a concert by Marian Anderson, the first black artist to perform in opera singing, who finds her calling. When she was only 17, she won a radio contest performing “O Don fatale”, an aria by Princess Eboli in Don Carlo by Verdi. However, due to segregation, the scholarship she had received to enroll in the national conservatory was refused.

But at the age of 23 she made her debut at the Paris Opéra, there too, she was the first black woman to step onto this emblematic stage, playing Amneris in help. It is then chosen by Wieland Wagnergrandson of the composer Richard Wagnerto embody Tannhäuser’s Venus at the Bayreuth Festival in 1961. Thus she becomes the first black woman to perform at this renowned venue.and became internationally famous.

Subsequently, she has taken to all the biggest stages in the world: Covent Garden in London, La Scala and at the Staatsoper in Vienna, Metropolitan Opera in New York… She has also recorded for the biggest labels in the world, such as EMI, Sony or Deutsche Grammophon as reported France Music.