Black Opera

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Black Opera Page 38

by Naomi Andre


  Tillet, Salamishah. “A Police Bombing, Homes on Fire and an Opera the Grapples with It All.” New York Times, September 15, 2017.

  Tommasini, Anthony. “Reinventing Supertitles: How the Met Did It.” New York Times, October 2, 1995. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/02/arts/reinventing-supertitles-how-the-met-did-it.html?pagewanted=all.

  Tonkin, Boyd. “Pumeza Matshikiza on Soprano Megastardom, Her Township Education and Why the ANC Is a Stuck Record.” The Independent, November 22, 2014.

  Touré. Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now. New York: Free Press, 2011.

  Trotter, James M. Music and Some Highly Musical People. 1880. London: Forgotten, 2012.

  Turner, Kristen. “Class, Race, and Uplift in the Opera House: Theodore Drury and His Company Cross the Color Line.” Journal of Musicological Research 34 (2015): 320–51.

  Tutu, Desmond, et al. “Special Investigation into the Mandela United Football Club.” Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 2, chap. 6 (1998): 549–76. http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%202.pdf.

  Tye, Larry. Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class. New York: Holt, 2004.

  Viljoen, Santisa, and Marita Wenzel. “The Same, yet Different: Re-Encoding Identity in U-Carmen eKhayelitsha.” Journal of the Music Arts in Africa 13, no. 1 (2016): 53–70.

  Walker, Alice. “If the Present Looks Like the Past, What Does the Future Look Like?” In In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, 290–312. New York: Harcourt, 1983.

  Watson, Steven. Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism. New York: Random House, 1998.

  West, Cornel. Race Matters. New York: Vintage Random House, 1993.

  Whooley, Owen. “Objectivity and Its Discontents: Knowledge Advocacy in the Sally Hemings Controversy.” Social Forces 86, no. 4 (June 2008): 1367–89.

  Wilkerson, Jane. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Vintage, 2010.

  Work, John W. “Negro Folk Song.” 1923. In Gates and Jarrett, New Negro, 453. Originally appeared in Opportunity 1, no. 10 (October 1923): 292–94.

  Wright, Josephine. “Jones, Sissieretta.” Oxford Music Online. New York: Oxford University Press.

  Wyatt, Robert, and John Andrew Johnson, eds. The George Gershwin Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

  Zanger, Anat. Film Remakes as Ritual and Disguise: From Carmen to Ripley. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.

  Index

  Note: Page numbers followed by “t” indicate tables or charts.

  Abbate, Carolyn, 218n2

  abolitionist movement, 33, 101

  Adams, Joe, 133–34, 135, 143, 145, 228n32

  Adams, John, 170, 172, 176, 177, 179, 180, 232n14

  Adams, Leslie, 11

  adaptation, 24, 196

  Addison, Adele, 90

  Ades, Thomas, 181

  African American composers, 11–12, 99–100. See also specific composers

  African American experience, 12, 178–79

  African American music, 66, 93–95. See also

  African American opera; jazz

  African American musicians, 37–38

  African American opera, 28–36, 180; composers, 11–12, 99–100; musicians, 37–38; singers, 35

  African Americans, 9, 30–31

  African American singers, 30–31, 35, 210n15. See also specific singers

  African cultures, 38

  African instrumentation, 172, 173

  African languages, 172, 173. See also Xhosa language and culture

  African musicians, 172

  Ailey, Alvin, 141, 150

  Alexander, Michelle, 209n7

  Alexander, Roberta, 8

  all-black Broadway shows, 132

  all-black casts and settings, 150–51, 180, 196, 224n27

  all-black Hollywood films, 132, 133–34

  all-black opera companies, 32, 213n6, 234n25

  Allen, G. Thomas, 236–37n21

  Allen, Ray, 96

  Alvin Theatre, 88–89, 223n9

  American Folklore Society, 96

  “American Folk Opera,” 23, 86–100, 177

  American identity, narratives of in opera, 176–80

  American music, 29; African American folk music as, 94; “American” musical voice, 88; defining, 93–95; double consciousness and, 99; first decades of twentieth century, 91–95; in the United States, 29. See also American opera

  American Musicological Society, 197–98, 236n12

  American Negro Leagues, 12

  “Americanness,” 85, 91

  American opera, 10, 23–24, 26–36, 33, 86, 168–72, 176–80, 196; African American composers, 11–12, 99–100; African American music and, 66, 93–95; African American musicians, 37–38; African American opera, 28–36, 180; African American singers, 30, 35; all-black opera companies in, 234n25; audiences in, 52; historical models in, 86; integration of, 180; new narrative of blackness presented through, 178–79; shadow culture in, 10, 11, 171–72, 177. See also specific operas

  American Opera Company, 91

  “American” voice, 23, 92, 93–95

  Amici Forever, 45–46

  Amistad, 11, 177–78

  AMS blog, 197–98, 236n16

  AMS Newsletter, 197

  Andalusia, 128, 130

  Anderson, Marian, 14–20, 27, 137; Carnegie Hall debut, 35; debut at Met, 35, 179; European debut at Paris Opera House, 35; invited to White House, 35; at Lincoln Memorial, 34; singing Ulrica at Met, 15–16, 35

  André Naomi: Blackness in Opera, 107; “From Otello to Porgy,” 108; Voicing Gender, 194–95

  Angelou, Maya, 90

  Ansell, Gwen, 37–38

  Antilles, 34

  anti-Semitism, 87, 101

  Antonenko, Aleksandrs, 3–4

  Anzaldúa, Gloria, 169

  apartheid, 2–6, 36–37, 39–40, 42, 52, 59, 167–68, 209n2, 210n18, 214n20, 217n57; categorizations under, 214n20, 219n13, 232n12; dismantling of, 5, 27; legacy of, 161; protests against, 4–5

  Apollo Theater, 12, 229n42

  arias, 32, 37–38, 47

  Arroyo, Martina, 8

  Art Sanctuary, 229n42

  Artscape Theatre, 48, 53

  art songs, 47, 94

  Asawa, Brian, 200

  assimiliationism, 151–52

  Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, 103, 225n40

  audiences, 1, 22, 156–58, 174, 193–98; bodies and, 195; heterogeneity of, 22; integrated, 52, 87, 88, 162; interpretation and, 21–22, 29, 208; mirroring, 166; in 1980s, 7; race and, 6, 52; South African, 52, 166; in the United States, 52

  audio recordings, 7

  Baartman, Saartijie (Sarah), 56–59, 218n4; as “Hottentot Venus,” 57; remains displayed in museums, 57, 58–59; repatriation of her remains, 58–59

  Bailey, Pearl, 90, 97, 135, 145, 146, 150

  Baiocchi, Regina Harris, 11

  Baka Boyz, 147

  Baker, Josephine, 66

  Baldwin, James, 97, 144–47, 154, 224n23

  Ball, Edward, 80–82, 83

  Ball, Theodore Porter, 80

  Ball family, 80–83

  Bantu Education Act, 216n46

  Barber, Karin, 22, 26, 170

  Barber, Samuel, 16, 118, 226n51

  Barnard College, 5

  Barnum, P. T., 33

  Barthes, Roland, 21–22, 195

  baseball, 12

  Basques, 130

  Battles, Kathleen, 8

  Baxter Theatre, 51, 53

  Beecher, Henry, 32

  “Beecher’s Negro Minstrels,” 32

  Belafonte, Harry, 41, 121, 133–34, 135, 150

  Bennett, Susan, 22

  Bergeron, Katherine, 231n62

  Beyoncé. See Knowles, Beyoncé

  Bhabha, Homi, 169

  Bhamra, D. J. Kuljit, 127

  Bhose, Indra, 127

  biracial ide
ntity, 65

  Bizet, Georges: Djamileh, 122; estate of, 134–35. See also Carmen (Bizet)

  black bodies, 6, 13–14, 21, 29, 34, 137–38

  black characters, representation of, 31–32

  black classical musicians, 33–34

  black classical singers, 27, 179

  black collaborators, nonblack composers and, 12

  black college singers, 30–31

  black composers, 6, 11–12, 32, 35, 42, 53, 99–100, 179–80. See also specific composers

  black dialect, 135

  “black English,” 135

  black experience, 12, 27, 168, 178–79; American opera and, 178–79; “classical” music and, 29; in opera, 10–11; opera and, 29; representation of, 21; voicing of, 28. See also African American experience

  blackface makeup, 2, 4–8, 10, 13–14, 31–32, 209n5, 213n7

  black female singers, at the Met, 210n15

  black identity, 42

  black involvement, in opera, 10

  black leading men, 107

  black librettists, 6

  black life, representation of, 97–98

  Black Lives Matter movement, 5, 209n7, 233n21

  black masculinity, 85, 112

  black men, 34, 236–37n21

  black middle class, 5

  black music, 29, 66, 93–95

  black music history, 27–54. See also African American music

  black musicians, 37–38

  blackness, 14, 56, 59, 87, 88, 96, 100, 101; audibility of, 14–20, 22–23, 29; audience interpretation of, 15; aural ideas of, 22–23; construction of, 61; hidden image internalized by black women in the United States, 118; modernism and, 21; new narrative presented through American opera, 178–79; opera and, 38–39, 168–69, 196–97; performance of, 31–32; staging of, 85, 90; in the United States, 118; visibility of, 14–20, 29

  Blackness in Opera, 8

  black opera, 6, 9, 27–54, 28–36, 43–49, 167–93; black composers, 11–12, 99–100; black experience, 12, 178–79; black music, 66, 93–95; black musicians, 37–38; black opera, 180; black opera composers, 11–12; black singers, 35

  black opera composers, 36

  black opera singers, 136–37, 179–80

  black participation in opera, 15, 23, 31, 33, 34, 196–97. See also specific roles and functions

  “Black Patti,” 222n61

  “Black Patti Troubadours,” 32, 33, 213n6, 214n11

  black singers, 4, 8, 27, 32, 35, 46–47, 51–52, 53, 171; called minstrels when performing classical music, 32; early, 30; gender and, 34; at major opera houses, 35; opera and, 196; in South Africa, 43–44, 43–49; training of, 32; in the United States, 30. See also specific operas and singers

  black South African composers, 42

  black South African experience, 168

  black South African identity, 42

  black South African opera, 9, 43–49, 171

  black South African singers, 46–47, 51–52, 171

  black subjects, of opera, 10–11

  “Black Swan,” 222n61

  “Black Swan Troupe,” 32

  Black Tie Ensemble, 53, 182

  black voices, downstaging, 9–13

  Blackwell, Harolyn, 8

  black-white race relations, 4, 5, 14–15, 156–57, 168, 220n31

  black womanhood, 24, 87; “black woman’s standpoint” theory, 195; in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, 151–53; invisibility of black women, 34; in Porgy and Bess, 107, 108–17, 118–19; representation, 85; stereotypes and, 118–19

  Blake, Eubie, 66

  Blk Sonshine, 41

  Block, Geoffrey, 102

  blues, 95, 101

  bodies: audiences and, 131–32, 195; ethnically/racially marked, 131–32; interpretation and, 29; interpretation of, 29; performing, 195. See also black bodies

  Bohlman, Philip, 22

  Bolcom, William, 23, 56, 60–61, 65–72, 78–79, 83–84, 86, 177–78, 221n32, 221–22n54

  Borodin, Alexander, 175

  Both, Pieter Willem, 5

  Botha, Johan, 2, 3, 209n3, 216n47

  Bourne, Matthew, 127

  boxing, 143

  Breathe Umphefumlo, 51, 234n24

  Breen, Bongani Ndodana, 167, 179, 216n45

  Britten, Benjamin, 98, 107

  Brodkin, Karen, 101

  Broomhill Opera, 50

  Brown, Anne, 89, 179

  Brown, Gwynne Kuhner, 89

  Brown, Lawrence, 94

  Brown, Michael, 233n21

  Brown, Rae Linda, 28

  “brown paper bag test,” 145–46, 228–29n37

  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 139

  Bruskin, Rose, 101, 104

  Bryant, Joy, 148

  Bubbles, John W. (also known as John William Sublett), 89

  Buffalo Soldiers, 11

  Bumbry, Grace, 8

  Burleigh, Harry T., 93

  Burnham, Melanie, 28

  Cabbage Row, 103

  Cabin in the Sky, 141

  Callender, James T., 68, 79, 221n47

  Cambridge, Alyson, 69, 72, 84

  Campbell, Mark, 12

  Campbell, Mike, 179–80, 233–34n23

  Cape Colony, 37

  Cape Town, South Africa, 48, 49, 51, 156, 182, 183–84, 217n57

  Cape Town Opera, 182, 233–34n23

  Cape Town Opera House, 39

  The Car Man, 127

  Carmen (Bizet), 11, 24, 50–51, 90, 120–24, 121t, 127–32, 134–35, 146, 152, 154, 158–61, 165, 197, 199–202, 231n56; Chanson bohèmien (“Gypsy Song”), 126, 140, 141, 142; femininity in, 123; flower as symbol in, 230n44; “Flower Song,” 230n44; gender in, 123–25; “La Habanera,” 125, 129; masculinity in, 124–25; Opera MODO’s production of, 237n23, 237n27; “Seguidilla,” 126; sexual violence in, 124–25; “Toreador Song,” 143; womanhood in, 123

  Carmen (Mérimée). See Mérimée, Prosper

  Carmen: A Hip Hopera, 11, 24, 121–22, 121t, 131, 147–56, 161; all-black cast in, 155, 162; black setting of, 166; black womanhood in, 151–53; death in, 163–64; DVD sales of, 230n50; Great Migration and, 156; May 2001 release of, 157; narration of, 148, 149–50; rose as symbol in, 230n44; womanhood in, 151–53

  Carmen Jones, 11, 24, 90, 121, 131, 132–47, 156–57, 161, 162–63, 227n16, 234n24; all-black cast in, 132, 133–34, 146, 147, 150–51, 155, 162; awards nominated for and won, 228–29n34; Baldwin’s review of, 144–47, 154; “Beat out Dat Rhythm on a Drum,” 140, 142, 143; black place and space in, 138–47; black setting of, 166; “Dat’s Love,” 152; death in, 162; dubbing in, 134–37; Great Migration and, 156; Hammerstein musical, 121; integrationism and, 150–51; 1954 film adaptation, 121, 121t, 148, 150, 151, 223n8; politics of skin color and, 145–47; reception of, 144–47; rose as symbol in, 229n44; setting for, 227–28n28; “Stan’ Up an’ Fight,” 143–44; success of, 134; tom-toms in, 142; “Whizzin’ Away Along de Track,” 139; who speaks and interprets the story, 137–38

  Carmen persona, 24, 156; color red and, 161, 164; evolution of, 154–55; as “exotic outsider,” 165–66; as a “gypsy,” 120; voice of, 125–26. See also specific versions

  Carmen story, 11, 120; adaptations of, 127, 227n4; audiences and, 131–32, 156–58, 162, 165–66; black settings of, 165, 166; Bollywood version, 127; death and, 161–66; ethnicity and, 121; exoticism in, 123, 127–32; Flamenco versions, 127; gender and, 121, 123–25; Habanera scenes, 161; identity markers in performances of, 131–32; narration of, 129, 131–32, 134–35; narrators and, 156–58; overview of, 121t; race and, 121; rubrics for approaching, 126–32; in Senegal, 122, 230n51 (see also Karmen Geï); sexuality and, 120, 121; in South Africa, 121, 122, 132, 156–66, 230n51 (see also U-Carmen eKhayelitsha); transatlantic, 24; transgendered version of, 200–203; voice of Carmen, 125–27; who speaks and interprets the story, 137–38. See also specific versions

  Carr Center, 203, 237n23, 237n27

  Carroll, Diahann, 90, 97, 135

  castrati, 201

  Catfish Row, 96, 97, 102, 103, 104, 107�
��8, 113, 114

  Cebekhulu, Katiza, 184

  center, margin and, 5, 169

  Charleston, South Carolina, 103, 104, 225–26n41

  Cheatham, Wallace, 210n15

  Cheng, William, 199

  Chicago, Illinois, 138–39, 166, 228n28

  choral concerts, 30–31

  choral networks, 43–44, 49. See also choral societies

  choral singing, 30–31, 37

  choral societies, 36, 43–44, 49

  Christian, King, 35

  churches, 30, 36, 37, 43

  Civil Rights Act, 19

  civil rights movement, 2, 5, 156, 179. See also Black Lives Matter movement

  classical music, 29, 30–31, 32, 47, 52, 92, 93–94, 99, 168

  Coalition for a Free South Africa, 5

  Cohen, Julie, 48–49

  Colbert, Burwell, 220n24

  colleges, historically black, 30–31

  College Walk, shantytown at, 5

  Collins, Patricia Hill, 5, 169, 195

  colonialism, 5–6, 7, 36–37, 42, 59, 167, 210n18, 219n13

  Colonial Theatre, 88, 223n9

  “color barriers,” 15–16, 27, 29, 136–37

  “colorblind” casting, falsity of, 14–15

  colorism, 145–46, 228–29n37

  Columbia University, 5, 30, 35

  Commentary magazine, 144–45

  community organizations, 43

  Cone, Edward, 195

  Constance Magogo Sibilile Mantithi Ngangezinye ka Dinuzulu, 44, 179. See also Magogo kaDinuzulu

  Constitution Hall, 15, 34

  Cook, James, 33

  Cook, Will Marion, 89

  Cornell University, 5

  counterracism, 171

  countertenors, 200–201, 236–37n21

  Cox, Peter, 86

  Crawford, Richard, 95–96

  cross-racial dubbing, 134–38

  Crow, Jim, 105, 106

  Cruse, Harold, 97, 224n23

  cultural theory, 22

  Da Brat, 148–50, 159, 163, 230n44

  Dalla, Lucio, 41

  Dandridge, Dorothy, 90, 97, 121, 133–36, 145, 150, 152–54, 227n16, 228–29n34, 230n46

  Danielpour, Richard, 12, 177–78

  Daniels, David, 200

  Da Ponte, Lorenzo, 30

  Dartmouth College, 5

  Dash, Julie, 137–38

  Daughters of the American Revolution, 15, 34

  Davids, Virginia, 47, 49, 217n50

  Davis, Anthony, 11, 12, 97, 157–58, 177–78

 

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