Grace Bumbry, a pioneering mezzo-soprano and the first Black singer to perform at Germany’s Bayreuth Festival, has died at the age of 86. Bumbry had a career spanning over three decades and was part of a generation of acclaimed Black opera singers that included Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, George Shirley, Reri Grist, and Martina Arroyo. She won the Met National Council Auditions in 1958 and made her Paris Opéra debut in 1960 as Amneris in “Aida.” Bumbry’s final full opera at the Met was at Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida” on Nov. 3, 1986.
Opera star Grace Bumbry, who broke the color barrier as the first Black artist to perform at Germany's Bayreuth Festival, has died at the age of 86. Bumbry was part of a pioneering generation of Black women opera stars that included Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, and Jessye Norman. Her operatic debut came in 1960, in no less a venue than the storied Paris Opera, where she sang the role of Amneris in Verdi's Aida. After great success as a mezzo-soprano, Bumbry shocked the opera world by committing to singing mostly as a soprano in the 1970s.
Grace Bumbry, a mezzo-soprano who broke racial barriers to become one of opera's first and biggest Black stars, has died at the age of 86. She made her international breakthrough in 1960 at the Paris Opera and was the first Black woman to perform at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. Bumbry transcended not only racial perceptions but vocal categorizations as well, taking on soprano parts in addition to mezzo-soprano roles. She performed more than 200 times at the Metropolitan Opera in New York over two decades and was known for her sultry stage presence.
Grace Bumbry, the first Black singer to perform at Germany's Bayreuth Festival and a pioneering mezzo-soprano, has died at the age of 86. Bumbry had a career of more than three decades on the world's top stages and was part of a generation of acclaimed Black opera singers. She won the Met National Council Auditions in 1958 and made her Paris Opéra debut in 1960 as Amneris in "Aida." Bumbry's final full opera at the Met was as Amneris in Verdi's "Aida" on Nov. 3, 1986.
Grace Bumbry, one of the first African Americans to conquer the international opera stage, has died at the age of 86. She made international headlines in 1961 when she became the first African American to perform at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. Bumbry pursued a remarkable range of roles in a stage career that lasted nearly 40 years. Her performance at Bayreuth notwithstanding, she did not consider herself a Wagnerian singer and said that the works of the 19th-century Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi were her “heart and soul.”
