Grace Bumbry (RIP); "Die Georgine"; Richard Strauss

This channel is the re-establishment of previous channels that have been sadly terminated.
=================
Grace Bumbry-soprano /mezzo
Sebastian Peschko----piano
1962
================
"Grace Melzia Bumbry (born January 4, 1937), an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano earlier in her career. She is a member of a pioneering generation of African-American opera and classical singers, beginning with Leontyne Price and including Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and Reri Grist), who succeeded Marian Anderson in the worlds of opera and classical music. They paved the way for future generations of African-American opera and concert singers. Bumbry's voice was rich and dynamic, possessing a wide range, and was capable of producing a very distinctive plangent tone.

In her prime, she also possessed good agility and bel canto technique (see for example her renditions of the 'Veil Song' from Verdi's Don Carlo in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as her Ernani from the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1984). She was particularly noted for her fiery temperament and dramatic intensity on stage. More recently, she has also become known as a recitalist and interpreter of lieder, and as a teacher. From the late 1980s on, she concentrated her career in Europe, rather than in the US. A long-time resident of Switzerland, she now makes her home in Salzburg, Austria.

Grace Bumbry was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the third child of Benjamin and Melzia Bumbry. . She later transferred to Northwestern University, where she met the German dramatic soprano and noted Wagnerian singer Lotte Lehmann, with whom she later studied at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, and who became her mentor in her early career.[3]

She gained international renown when she was cast by Wieland Wagner (Richard Wagner's grandson) as Venus in Tannhäuser at Bayreuth in 1961, at age 24, the first black singer to appear there, which earned her the title "Black Venus".[5] The cast also included Victoria de los Angeles as Elisabeth and Wolfgang Windgassen as Tannhäuser.[6] Conservative opera-goers were outraged at the idea, but 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.[7] The ensuing furor in the media made Bumbry an international cause célèbre. She was subsequently invited by Jacqueline Kennedy to sing at the White House.

Later career
In the 1970s, Bumbry, having recorded many soprano arias, began taking on more soprano roles. Her first official soprano role was Salome in 1970 at Covent Garden.[citation needed] In 1971, she debuted as Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. She also took on more unusual roles, such as Janáček's Jenůfa (in Italian) at La Scala in 1974 (with Magda Olivero as the Kostelnička), Dukas's Ariane et Barbe-bleue in Paris in 1975, and Sélika in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine at Covent Garden in 1978 (opposite Plácido Domingo as Vasco da Gama).[citation needed] She also began assuming such roles as Norma, Medea, Abigaille and Gioconda. She first sang Norma in 1977 in Martina Franca, Italy; the following year, she sang both Norma and Adalgisa in the same production at Covent Garden, first as the younger priestess opposite Montserrat Caballé as Norma; later, as Norma, with Josephine Veasey as Adalgisa.[citation needed]

As an interpreter of lieder she often performed with the German pianist Sebastian Peschko.

Other noted soprano roles in her career have included: Chimène (in Le Cid), Elisabeth (in Tannhäuser), Elvira (in Ernani), Leonora (both Il trovatore and La forza del destino).[citation needed] Other major mezzo-soprano roles in her repertory included Dalila, Cassandre and Didon (in Les Troyens), Massenet's Hérodiade, Ulrica, Azucena,

Vocal range
Bumbry's career in the world of opera was a remarkable and long one, if somewhat controversial. Initially, Bumbry began her career as a mezzo-soprano, but later expanded her repertoire to include many dramatic soprano roles. In the mid-1970s and 1980s she considered herself a soprano; but in the 1990s, as her career approached its twilight, she often returned to mezzo roles. She was one of the more successful singers who have made the transition from mezzo-soprano to high soprano (along with her compatriot and contemporary Shirley Verrett); however, audiences and critics were divided over whether she was a "true" soprano. Nonetheless, she sang major soprano roles at most major opera houses around the world up until the end of her operatic career in the 1990s—singing Turandot at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden (London) in 1993, for example. Her main operatic career spanned from 1960 (her debut in Paris as Amneris) to 1997 (as Klytämnestra, in Lyon, France), though she resumed staged activity years later ."; Wikipedia (edited)