Marian Anderson, Great American Contralto
First African-American Singer to Appear at the Metropolitan Opera
May 18, 2009
Born in Philadelphia on February 17,1902, she was from a poor family and even though she showed vocal talent at an early age she was unable to take lessons. As a member of the choir of Union Baptist Church, she was taught to sing all the parts, including bass.
She so impressed the members of the congregation that they provided financial backing for her to study at a music school for a year.
Teachers of Marian Anderson
Her first teacher was Mary Saunders Patterson, an African-American soprano, with whom she studied when she was fifteen. Later she went to contralto Agnes Reifsnyder, and stayed with her for two years.
Her last teacher was the well-known Guiseppe Boghetti, who was born Joseph Bogash in 1896. He was of Russian-Jewish ancestry, and even after much study in Milan and a change of name, did not become a successful operatic singer. However, he was a fine teacher. His death in the 1940's left Anderson grief-stricken.
Music Competitions
Marian entered the Philadelphia Philharmonic Society vocal competition and won it in 1925. Later she entered the Lewisohn Stadium Competition and won out over 300 competitors. The prize was a concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In 1928, Marian Anderson sang a solo recital in Carnegie Hall in New York City.
She was welcomed abroad and sang in many of the Scandinavian countries. After hearing her sing, the Finnish Composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) composed a song, Solitude, for her. While abroad, the conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) heard her and told her that her kind of voice came along only once in a century.
Racial Discrimination
Marian Anderson was the victim of much racial discrimination during her lifetime, but chose to ignore it. A peace-loving individual, she tried to disregard as much of it as she could. In 1939 she attempted to give a concert in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., but was refused because of her color.
This prompted First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). It was arranged that Miss Anderson would perform instead at the Lincoln Memorial, where she sang to 75,000 cheering people.
The winner of many awards, Marian Anderson was 53 when she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Ulrica in Verdi's Masked Ball. This beloved American singer died on April 8,1993, in Portland, Oregon, where she had been living for some time with her nephew, the conductor James De Priest.
Sources
My Lord, What a Morning: An Autobiography Marian Anderson Madison: U.of Wisconsin Press. 1992
Marian Anderson: Lady From Philadelphia Shirlee P. Newan Westminster Press, Philadelphia 1965
Famous American Women ed. Robert McHenry Dover Publications,Inc., New York 1980
For further reading about singers see Alma Gluck
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