Black Opera
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musical diasporas, 167
musical styles, 44–45
musical theater genres, distinctions among, 234n29
music education, 14, 42, 43–44, 47, 49, 91, 216n46
musicology: current directions in, 197; performance practice in, 235n2
Musicology Now, 197–98, 236n16
Muslims, stereotypes of, 204–7
Mussorgsky, Modest, 175
Muyanga, Neo, 27–28, 39, 40–43
narratives, opera and, 173–80
narrative voice, 21, 156–58
National Negro Opera Company, 35
nation, 9, 24, 59, 168–69, 208
national artistic ministries, 180
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 133, 150
national building, 168
National Conservatory of Music, 91–92, 93
national identity, 174–75, 181–82, 192
nationalism, 174–75
Navarre, France, 130
Ndiphilela Ukucula: I Live to Sing, 48–49
Ndodana-Breen, Bongani, 24, 42, 44, 172–73, 182
“Negro Folk Song,” 93
Neighbor, Oliver, 73
Nester, Daniel, 12
New Deal, 96
“new Jim Crow,” 4, 209n7
Newland, Marti, 83, 84
“New Negro,” 96
New Orleans, 14
New York City Opera, 89, 136–37
Nguni languages, 173
Norman, Jessye, 8, 41
North Africans, 10
North Eastern Railroad, 103–4
Ntleza, Linda, 48
Nunn, Trevor, 90, 114, 223n4
Nuttall, Sarah, 171
Obama, Barack, 4, 53–54, 61, 178–79
Offenbach, Jacques, 48
Okoye, Nkeiru, 11–12, 12
O’Neill, Eugene, 142
opera: accessibility of, 193–94; African American experience in, 12; African Americans in, 30–31; all-black settings in, 180, 196; audiences and, 195–96; audiences of, 174, 193–94, 197–98; aural sound of, 8; black experience and, 10–11, 29; black music history and, 27–54; blackness and, 196–97; blackness in, 38–39, 168–69; black participation in, 10, 15–16, 23, 31, 33, 34 (see also specific roles and functions); black performers and, 196; blacks and, 196–97; black subjects of, 10–11; changing vision of, 26; colonialism and, 7; “color barriers” in, 15–16, 27, 29, 136–37; composition of, 25–26; European, 168–70, 174–75, 232n15; future of, 182–83; gender and, 211–12n27; genre of, 5–6, 196, 234n29; grand tradition of, 212n28; history and, 27–54, 173–80, 179–80, 232n15; imperialism and, 7; integration of, 16, 180; interpretation and, 194–95; interracial collaboration and, 196; Italian, 174–75; narratives and, 173–80; nationalism and, 174–75; nation and, 168–69; new opera as risky venture, 12–13; in 1935, 98–99; in 1980s, 7; political meanings and, 171; segregation and, 10, 15–16, 28, 29, 179; in Senegal, 8, 210n17; in South Africa, 8–9, 23, 25–28, 36–43, 46–47, 49–52, 168–72, 177–80, 196, 210n18, 232n13; in the United States, 10, 23–24, 26–30, 33, 168–72, 176–80, 196; videos of, 7; visual components of, 8; what is opera in 1935, 98–100
Opera Africa, 182
“opera bands,” 45–46
opera buffa, 204
Opéra-Comique, 122, 123, 126
opera companies: all-black, 213n6, 234n25; integration of, 46; new movement of, 236n18; small, 35; in South Africa, 49–50, 182
Opera Ebony, 234n25
opera houses, 29, 35, 36, 43
Opera MODO, 200–203, 236n18, 237n23
Opera Philadelphia, 12, 229n42
opera seria, 204
opera studies, 6, 22
Opera Theatre of St. Louis, 11
“Operatic Kaleidoscope,” 214n11
operatic subjects, 26
operetta, genre of, 234n29
oppression, overcoming, 196
Oprah Winfrey Show, 80, 82
oral culture, 26
Orange Is the New Black, 200, 203
orientalism, 170
Original Dixie Jubilee Singers, 89
Ortiz, Fernando, 157–58 the Other, 123, 151, 152, 165, 170, 212n36
Owens, Eric, 48
Pappenheim, Marie, 73
Paris Conservatory, 91
Paris Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 57
Paris Opera House, 35
Parks, Suzan-Lori, 87, 88, 223n4, 226n43
passing, 59, 65, 138 The Passion of Winnie, 182, 234n28
Paton, Alan, 48
patriarchy, 62, 112, 161, 164
Patti, Adelina, 222n61
Paulus, Diane, 87, 88, 223n4, 226n43
Pavarotti, Luciano, 41
pedagogies, 5, 208
Penna, J. J., 72
performance, 22, 23, 195
performance practice, 1, 235n2
performance studies, 22
“Period Ear,” 194–95, 212–13n38
Peters, Brock, 97, 135, 146
Phaahla, Joe, 188
Phifer, Mekhi, 122, 148
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 166
Pittsburgh Opera, 12
Plessy v. Ferguson, 139
Poitier, Sidney, 90, 97
police, shootings of, 4
police brutality, 4, 178–79, 233n21
political action, 193–208
Pollack, Howard, 102
Pondoland, 183, 192
Population Registration Act, 219n13
Porgy and Bess, 11, 21, 85–119, 177–78, 224n27; all-black cast in, 180, 224n27; at the Alvin Theatre, 88–89, 223n9; as “American Folk Opera,” 105, 108; Bess onstage and in the audience, 117–19; black performers in, 87, 88, 89, 179; black womanhood in, 107, 108–19; constructing story of, 87–88; critical edition of musical score, 223n4; criticism of, 96–98, 100; difficulty finding print of, 224n23; first performance in 1935, 85; as “folk opera,” 95–96; Glyndebourne film, 90, 114–15, 116, 223n4; Great Migration and, 100–105; Houston Grand Opera revival, 90; immigration and, 100–105; integrated audiences and, 87, 88; introducing, 88–90; legacy of, 90; meaning in, 87–88; Metropolitan Opera, 85; mezzo-soprano voice in, 112; at Michigan Opera Theatre, 88; minstrelsy and, 105–8; “official” standard version of, 223n6; performed in South Africa, 86; premiere of, 88–89, 223n9; racism and, 96–97; reception of, 97–98, 100; as reflection of Gershwin brothers’ experience, 104–5; Samuel Goldwyn film, 90, 97, 98, 224n23; sexual violence in, 116–17; soprano voice in, 112–13; stereotypes in, 88, 97–98, 100, 102, 106–8, 111–13; tour of, 89–90; 2012 Broadway production of, 87–88, 114, 116–17, 226n43, 233n18
Porgy and Bess: An American Voice, 117–18, 119
Porpora, Nicola, 201
Portobello opera company, 50, 234n26. See also Isango Ensemble
power, 7, 8, 154
Powers, David M., 34
Preminger, Otto, 90, 97, 121, 121t, 135, 138, 140, 148, 150–51, 223n8, 224n23
Pretoria, South Africa, 8, 24–25, 44, 180–81, 182
Pretoria Technikon, 45, 216n47
Price, Leontyne, 14–20, 87; as Cleopatra in Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, 16, 226n51; in Four Saints and Three Acts, 118, 224n27; makes Metropolitan Opera debut in 1961, 19; in Mozart roles, 16; performs at the Met, 16; in Porgy and Bess, 224n27; sings Aida, 15, 16–19, 118, 226n51; sings Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, 118; sings Bess in Porgy and Bess, 117–19; sings Handel’s Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, 16, 118; sings Monteverdi’s Poppea, 16; sings Poulenc’s Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, 16, 118
Princess Magogo ka Dinuzulu, 25, 44, 172, 173, 179, 216n45
prisons, staging of opera in, 200–203
public musicology, 197–99, 236n12, 236n16
Puccini, Giacomo: death of, 98, 212n28; La Bohème, 180, 233–34n24; Tosca, 181
Pullman Porters, 103
Quivar, Florence, 56, 66–67, 69, 72
race, 9, 14, 20, 23–24, 59, 87, 131–32, 178, 195–96, 208; Carmen story, 121; femininity and, 24; gender and, 56;
music and, 29; opera and, 26; racial discrimination, 64; racial formation, 61; “racial imagination,” 22; racial inclusivity, 46; racialized listening, 22–23; racial politics, 3; racial tensions, 4–5; racial terminology, 6; roles and, 13–14; in the United States, 23–24, 29; visibility of, 14–15. See also apartheid; black-white race relations; interracial relationships
racial inclusivity, legislated in post-apartheid South Africa, 46
racialized listening, 22–23
racism: institutionalized, 161; Porgy and Bess
and, 96–97
Radano, Ronald, 22, 29
radio broadcasts, 7
Ragin, Derek Lee, 200, 236–37n21
ragtime, 101
Rah Digga, 148
railways, 103–4
Ramaka, Joséph Gaï, 127, 210n17
Ramsey, Guthrie, 28
rap opera, 229n41
Rattle, Simon, 90
realism/verismo, 160, 210n11, 231n56
Reconstruction, 23–24, 33
representation, 7, 8, 24, 236n18; of black
characters, 31–32; of black experience, 21, 97–98; of roles, 20; Said and, 7, 8
Revolutionary era (U.S.), 23
Reynolds, Christopher, 197
Rice, Thomas Dartmouth, 31, 105, 106
Richardson, Jerry, 184
Rihanna, 230n49
Risorgimento, 174–75
R. Kelly, 147
Roach, Max, 141, 150
Robeson, Paul, 41, 142
Robinson, Paul, 129
Rodgers, Richard, 132
roles: race and, 13–14; representation of, 20
Romany language, 149
Romany people, 120, 130, 146, 226n1
Romero, Carmencita, 141
Roodeport city Opera, 45, 216n47
Roos, Hilde, 37
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 15, 34, 35
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 35
Roper family, 82
Rose, Billy, 134
Rosi, Francesco, 121t
Ross, Alex, 236n18
Rossini, Gioachino, 29–30, 201, 213n4
Rothman, Joshua, 68, 221n47
Rothstein, Edward, 61
Roumain, Daniel Bernard, 12
Royal College of Music, 47
Royal Opera House, 47, 51, 52
rubrics for listening and analyzing, 20–23
Russia, 175
Ruth Ellis Center, 201, 203, 237n24
SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation), 184, 185
Said, Edward: essays on Aida, 7; Orientalism, 6–7, 170, 206; power and, 7, 8; representation and, 7, 8
Saint-Domingue (Haiti), 34
Sambo, 106–8
Sanderson, Anna, 79
San Francisco Opera, 35
Sarpong, Sam, 148, 153
Saura, Carlos, 127
Savage, Archie, 141
Schippers, Thomas, 14, 212n29
Schnyder, Daniel, 12
Schoenberg, Arnold, 72–73
Seaton, Sandra, 23, 56, 60–61, 64, 72–73, 76–78, 219n20, 221n35, 222n59, 222n61; A Bed Made in Heaven, 79; The Bridge Party, 78; From the Diary of Sally Hemings, 65–67, 79–80, 83–84, 177–78; heritage of, 78–79, 83; Sally, 79; verbal text of From the Diary of Sally Hemings, 67–71; The Will, 78–79, 222n61
segregation, 4–6, 23, 27, 52, 64, 97, 102, 108, 139, 141, 156; at Metropolitan Opera, 15–16; in opera, 10, 15–16, 28, 29, 179; in United States, 10. See also “color barriers”; desegregation; integration; Jim Crow segregation
Seipei, Stompie, 184
Self, Other and, 165
self-definition, experiences of, 88
Selika, Marie, 32
Senaoana, Makudupanyane, 48. See also Ndiphilela Ukucula: I Live to Sing
Senegal: Carmen story in, 122, 230n51; opera in, 8, 210n17
September 11, 2001, 157, 204, 206
sexuality, 9, 23, 152–54, 156, 161, 208, 211–12n27, 212n33, 230n49; Carmen story and, 120, 121; hypersexuality, 24, 87, 108; opera and, 26; power and, 154
shadow opera culture, 9–13; in South Africa, 10–11, 36, 42, 171–72; in the United States, 10, 11, 171–72, 177
Shakespeare, William: Othello, 10; Venus and Adonis, 51
Sharpeville Massacre, 5
Sheader, Timothy, 223n4
Sheng, Bright, 181
Sher, Bartlett, 3–4
Shirley, George, 14
Shirley, Wayne D., 223n4
Shuffle Along, 66, 221n33
Sibelius, Jean, 35
Siegfried, Jeff, 225n38
singers, 43; history of, 35–36; identity of, 20. See also African American singers; black
singers; specific singers
singing, access to, 35–36
Singspiel, 204
Sissle, Noble, 66
skin color, politics of, 145–47. See also ethnicity; race
slavery, 5–6, 30, 55, 56, 59–61, 64, 65, 83
slave trade, transatlantic, 38
Smalls, Samuel, 105–6
Smetana, Bedřich, 136, 137, 175
Smith, Jeff, 134–35
social justice, 193–208
social justice movement, 101, 193–208, 236n18
“solo opera,” 72
Somma, Donato, 25, 235n40, 235n42
Sonenberg, Daniel, 12
Songa, Tiyo, 41–42
South Africa, 9, 56, 58; apartheid in, 2–5, 36–37, 39–40, 42, 167–68, 210n18, 214n20, 217n57, 218n13; artistic nationhood and, 167–72; calls for decolonization and transformation of higher education institutions in, 5; colonialism in, 27, 36–37, 42, 167, 210n18, 219n13; identity in, 42; minstrelsy in, 32, 37–38, 167; minstrel troupes in, 27; mixed-race singers in, 43–44; national artistic ministries in, 180; national identity and, 181–82, 192; Population Registration Act in, 218n13; post-apartheid, 40–41, 43–44, 46–47, 49, 51–52, 86, 132, 156–68, 172, 177, 182–83, 192, 231n59; racial categories in, 214n20, 219n13
South African College of Music, University of Cape Town, 38, 39–40, 47, 48, 49
South African history, 27, 173–74, 179–80, 183
South African music, 167–68
South African opera, 2, 8–9, 23, 25–28, 36–43, 49–52, 168–72, 177–80, 196, 210n18, 232n13; African American musicians in, 37–38; African instrumentation featured in, 172, 173; African languages in, 173; African musicians in, 173; all-black settings in, 180; audiences in, 52; black, 9, 43–49, 167–93, 171; black composers, 25, 42, 179–80; black singers, 43–49, 46–47, 51–52, 171, 179–80; Carmen story, 121, 122, 132, 156–66, 230n51 (see also U-Carmen eKhayelitsha); composers, 42; first generations of, 43–49; integration of, 180; interracial collaboration in, 171; opera companies, 49–50, 182; Porgy and Bess production, 86; recent black opera in, 172–73; shadow culture in, 10–11, 36, 42, 171–72; singers, 28, 46–47, 51–52, 171; Truth and Reconciliation Coalition, 183–87
Southern, Eileen, 28, 33
Soweto, Johannesburg, 44
Soweto Uprising, 5
Soweto Youth Congress (SOYCO), 184
Spain, 127, 128
spirituals, 30, 31, 32, 37, 93, 94, 96
spoken word, 53
Standifer, James, 117–18, 119
standpoint theory, 5, 195
Stanton, Lucia Cinder, 219n20
State Theatre, 8, 24–25, 44, 180–81, 182
Stein, Gertrude, 21, 89, 99, 118, 224n27
Steinberg, Jonny, 51, 52
stereotypes, 2, 4, 16; anti-Semitic, 101; black womanhood and, 118–19; minstrelsy and, 24, 31–32, 87, 97, 105, 106–8, 111–13, 119, 212n33; of Muslims, 204–7; negative, 13, 31–32; in Porgy and Bess, 88, 97–98, 100, 102, 111–13; white singers and, 2. See also specific stereotypical figures
Stewart, Nick, 135
Stiles, Mary Evelyn, 94
Stiles, Robert, 94
Still, William Grant, 66, 99, 142
Stoever, Jennifer Lyn, 22–23, 212–13n38
Stormy Weather, 142, 143
Story, Rosalind, 33
> Strauss, Johann II, 141
Strauss, Richard, 98, 181, 224n10
Studer, Cheryl, 14
Stuttgart Opera, 47
Sublett, John William (also known as John W. Bubbles), 89
Swanepoel, Theunis, 190–91
syncretism, 41–42, 167, 183
Tania, 11
Taylor, Darryl, 200, 236–37n21
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Illyich, 175
Te Kanawa, Kiri, 47
Tetrazzini, Luisa, 132
Texaco broadcasts, 7, 210n13
texts, 22, 170–71
theater criticism, 22
Theodore Drury Grand Opera Company, 33, 35, 213n6
Thompson, Era Bell, 97–98
Thompson, Krissah, 83
Thompson, Richard, 11
Thompson, Virgil, 21, 89, 99, 118, 224n27
Thurber, Francis Beatty, 91
Thurber, Jeanette, 91–92, 93
Thurman, Kira, 33–34
Toll Brothers home building company, 7
tom-toms, 142–43
Townsend, Robert, 121–22, 121t, 147
Township Opera, 50
Tracey, Hugh, 44
training. See music education
transatlantic slave trade, 38
trans community, 199–203, 236n18
Tressell, Robert, 51
Trickster (“Zip Coon”), 106, 107
Trilogy Opera Company of Newark, New Jersey, 11
Trotter, William T., 28
Truth and Reconciliation Coalition, 5, 183–87, 189–90, 192
Tshwane University of Technology, 216n47
Turandot, 209n5
Turner, Kristen, 33, 213n6
Tuskegee Airmen, 139
Tuskegee Study, 110, 226n47
Tutu, Desmond, 5, 183–84, 185–86, 190
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, 8, 11, 24, 50–51, 121—22, 121t, 131, 156–66, 231n58, 234n24; all-black cast in, 156; audience of, 166; death in, 164–65; as global text, 166; realism/verismo in, 160; setting for, 231n56
Uncle Tom, 106
Under the Double Moon, 11
“unhomely” works, 169
United States, 9, 56, 57–58; blackness in, 118; black-white race relations in, 4; civil rights movement in, 2, 5; civil unrest in response to police brutality, 233n21; desegregation in, 5; Emancipation in, 23; emergence of black middle class in, 5; race in, 3, 4–5, 23–24, 29; Reconstruction in, 23–24; Revolutionary era in, 23; segregation in, 10 (see also Jim Crow segregation; segregation). See also American music; American opera
University of Cape Town, 24, 27, 182; opera program, 234n24; South African College of Music, 38, 39–40, 48, 49
University of Michigan, 24; School of Music, Theatre and Dance, 2
University of Pretoria, 45
University of Rhodes, 44