Pioneering opera star Grace Bumbry dies at 86.
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.