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| American singer Grace Bumbry, in March 1982, in New York (United States). |
She had the aura and all the trappings of a star: cheeky glamour, a magnetic stage presence and a volcanic temperament. And, above all, the voice of the good Lord. A sumptuous voice, of dark velvet and br, endowed with a powerful projection, with percussive treble, deep b, which will have enabled her to embody, in particular, the great Verdian roles, which she has left her mark dramatic, upsetting the history of lyrical art in the XXe century.
The American singer Grace Bumbry had suffered a stroke in October 2022: she died on May 7, at the age of 86, in a hospital in Vienna (Austria), her city of adoption after years spent in Switzerland, near Lugano.
From the middle cl, Grace Melzia Ann Bumbry was born on January 4, 1937 in Saint Louis (Missouri). His father, Benjamin Bumbry, was a warehouseman on the Cotton Belt Railroad; his mother, Melzia Walker, a teacher who would have liked to be a singer. The whole family practices music and sings in the choir of the Methodist Church. At the age of 7, she began to study the piano, then participated in an a cappella vocal group, while taking singing lessons with the music teacher at her school.
His first performances as a soloist took place in school productions of the Messiah, of Handel, at Charles H. Sumner High School in his hometown. At 12, she joined the local Methodist choir, and dreams of becoming a singer, like the contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1993), whom the young Bumbry discovered in concert at 10 and whose every recording she listened to. and radio broadcast.
After graduating in 1954, the girl won a talent show sponsored by the local radio station KMOX. The award includes a scholarship to the Saint Louis Institute of Music, which turns her down because she is black. The organizers arrange, however, for her to participate, later, in Arthur Godfrey’s television program “Talent Scouts”. Grace Bumbry interprets the perilous O fatal gift of Don Carlo, by Verdi, which will be broadcast nationally. An event that will open the doors to the College of Fine Arts at Boston University (Machusetts).
The first African-American in Bayreuth
After a private audition, the singer was also dubbed by Marian Anderson, who praises her “magnificent voice of great beauty”. In 1955, endowed with a scholarship, Grace Bumbry left to perfect her skills in Boston and then at Northwestern University (Illinois), where the great German naturalized American soprano Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) gave master cles. Impressed, this one invites him in its Academy of music of the West, in Santa Barbara (California). She will become his mentor and will make him work on the mezzo roles in which the future diva will shine, even though she claims to be a soprano.
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| Arguably, the best Messiah ever recorded. Look at the cast! |
First published at News in France, May 8, 2023
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