Grace Melzia Bumbry was an American opera singer, considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, who ventured to soprano roles.
37 Facts About Grace Bumbry
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Grace Bumbry belonged to a pioneering generation of African-American classical singers, led by Marian Anderson.
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Grace Bumbry was recognized internationally when Wieland Wagner cast her for the 1961 Bayreuth Festival as Venus in Tannhauser, the first black singer to appear at the festival.
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Grace Bumbry was particularly noted for her fiery temperament and dramatic intensity on stage.
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Grace Ann Melzia Bumbry was born in St Louis, Missouri, on January 4,1937.
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Grace Bumbry was the third child of Benjamin Bumbry, a railroad freight handler, and Melzia Bumbry, a teacher.
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Grace Bumbry trained in classical piano beginning at age 7, but determined she would become a singer after seeing Marian Anderson in concert.
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Grace Bumbry joined the local Methodist choir at age 12, and performed as a soloist in school production of Handels Messiah.
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Grace Bumbry listened to Anderson on radio and in recordings "at every opportunity", and was inspired to become a singer listening to the St Louis Symphony conducted by Vladimir Golschmann.
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Grace Bumbry graduated from the prestigious Charles Sumner High School, the first black high school west of the Mississippi.
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Grace Bumbry later transferred to Northwestern University, where she met Lotte Lehmann, a German dramatic soprano, especially for Wagner roles, who gave master classes there and was impressed.
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Grace Bumbry studied with renowned teachers Marinka Gurewich and Armand Tokatyan.
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Grace Bumbry studied singing lieder with Pierre Bernac in Paris.
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Grace Bumbry made her operatic debut in 1960 when she sang Amneris in Verdi's Aida at the Paris Opera; that same year she joined the Basel Opera, where she was based for four years.
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Grace Bumbry gained international renown when she was cast by Wieland Wagner, Wagner's grandson, as Venus in Tannhauser at the 1961 Bayreuth Festival, at age 24, the first black singer to appear there, which earned her the nickname "Black Venus".
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Grace Bumbry caused a sensation; while conservative opera-goers were outraged at the idea, Bumbry's performance was so moving that by the end of the opera she had won the audience over and they applauded for 30 minutes, necessitating 42 curtain calls.
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Grace Bumbry was invited by Jacqueline Kennedy to sing at the White House in 1962.
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Grace Bumbry returned to the White House in 1981, singing at the Ronald Reagan inauguration.
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Grace Bumbry made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London in 1963 as Eboli, alongside Boris Christoff as the king and Tito Gobbi as Posa, in a 1958 production by Luchino Visconti.
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Grace Bumbry made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1965, again as Eboli.
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Grace Bumbry sang the 'veil song' beautifully with a light coloration not easy for mezzos to come by, but she had the full range of stops to make "O Don Fatale" an experience in musical drama rather than merely an exercise in vocal agility.
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Grace Bumbry first appeared at La Scala in Milan as Azucena.
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Grace Bumbry returned to the San Francisco Opera in 1967 for her first performance of Laura Adorno in Ponchielli's La Gioconda alongside Leyla Gencer in the title role, Renato Cioni as Enzo Grimaldi, Maureen Forrester as La Cieca and Chester Ludgin as Barnaba.
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Grace Bumbry first appeared as Puccini's Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in 1971, and then at La Scala in 1974.
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Grace Bumbry took on more unusual roles, such as Janacek's Jenufa at La Scala in 1974, with Magda Olivero as the Kostelnicka, and Ariane in Ariane et Barbe-bleue by Paul Dukas in Paris in 1975.
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Grace Bumbry first appeared as Norma in 1977 in Martina Franca, Italy.
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Grace Bumbry first performed as Selika in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine in London in 1978.
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Grace Bumbry assumed roles such as Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco and La Gioconda.
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Grace Bumbry then devoted herself to teaching, judging international competitions, and to the concert stage, giving a series of recitals in 2001 and 2002 in honor of her teacher, Lotte Lehmann, including at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, London's Wigmore Hall and New York's Alice Tully Hall.
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Grace Bumbry appeared at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as the Old Lady in Bernstein's Candide in 2012, and finally as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's Pique dame at the Vienna State Opera on January 30,2013, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.
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On October 20,2022, Grace Bumbry was on a flight from Vienna to New York when she had a stroke.
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Grace Bumbry's health declined over the following months, and she died from related complications at a hospital in Vienna on May 7,2023, at age 86.
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Grace Bumbry's career in the world of opera was a remarkable and long one, if somewhat controversial.
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Grace Bumbry was one of the more successful singers who have made the transition from mezzo-soprano to soprano ; however, audiences and critics were divided over whether she was a "true" soprano.
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Grace Bumbry recorded Handel's Messiah in London in 1961 conducted by Adrian Boult, alongside Joan Sutherland and Kenneth McKellar.
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Grace Bumbry received a Grammy Award in 1972 for Best Opera Recording.
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In 1992, Grace Bumbry was inducted into the St Louis Walk of Fame.