Pioneering Black Opera Singer Grace Bumbry Passes Away at 86.
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.