May 6, 2016 was officially declared Grace Bumbry Day by the city of St. Louis. Almost seven years to the day that the pioneering opera legend was honored by her hometown, she took her final bow. Bumbry passed away at a hospital in Vienna, Austria on May 7. Her death was the result of complications from an acute ischemic stroke she suffered due to a fall. She was 86.
…at the tender age of twenty-four she was cast by Wieland Wagner as Venus for a production of his grandfather Richard Wagner’s famed opera “Tannhauser” at Bayreuth. She was the first Black singer to appear there, which earned her the title “Black Venus.”
That day in May – her final appearance at home in a professional capacity – was a special one. The Grammy award-winning diva sat on stage with a huge smile on her face. The stunning beauty that captivated audiences for decades was undiminished. Elegant and poised, she took in the moment that was included as part of a special master class presented by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
“I personally owe so much to my teachers at my all Black elementary and junior high school because they taught me about the great voices in classical music so I can cherish and admire what Miss Bumbry has accomplished,” Gerald Early, Merle King Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University, said during his introduction of Bumbry.
Students and alumni of Bumbry’s alma mater Sumner High School – the first high school for Black students located west of the Mississippi River – were also on hand to watch one of their most famous graduates be honored that afternoon at the Sheldon Concert Hall. “She was a trailblazer for opera in breaking the color barrier in many places all over the world,” said Robert McNichols, then manager of community events and engagement for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. “Here she is an African American legend in the field of opera, and she’s from St. Louis.”
Past and present students beamed as they witnessed a woman who walked the very same halls of their school be heralded for contributions within the field of opera that forever changed the art form. It was at this historically Black high school where Bumbry received her early classical training under the direction of famed educator Kenneth Billups.
Birth of a ‘Black Venus’
Grace Ann Bumbry was born on January 4, 1937 in St. Louis, the third child of Benjamin Bumbry and Melzia Bumbry. Bumbry was only eleven when she joined the choir of Union Memorial Methodist Church. When she joined the chorus at Sumner High School, it was Billups who recognized Bumbry’s remarkable gift as a classical singer.
At 17, Bumbry won a talent show that included a music conservatory scholarship. The conservatory did not admit Black students. She was offered private lessons as a consolation prize. The Bumbry family refused. Instead, she auditioned for the nationally syndicated Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts program. Her performance of “O don fatale” moved Godfrey to tears. He predicted that Bumbry’s name would be among the most famous in music one day. He was right.
She studied at Boston University and later at Northwestern University. At the 1958 Metropolitan Opera auditions, she earned a first-place win – a prize she shared with Martina Arroyo. In 1960, Bumbry joined the Basel Opera. A year later she sang at the Kiel Opera House.
She gained international stardom a year after that, when at the tender age of twenty-four she was cast by Wieland Wagner as Venus for a production of his grandfather Richard Wagner’s famed opera “Tannhauser” at Bayreuth (a festival held in honor of Richard Wagner). She was the first Black singer to appear there, which earned her the title “Black Venus.”
The conservative opera community initially called Wieland Wagner’s decision to give the role to Bumbry “a cultural disgrace.” Wieland Wagner doubled down. “When I heard Grace Bumbry, I knew she was the perfect Venus,” Wieland Wagner famously said in response to the backlash.
He even went as far as to imply that Bumbry was so profoundly talented that Richard Wagner – notoriously known for his white supremacist views – would have put his racist ideology aside for the sake of Bumbry’s stunning voice.
“Grandfather would have been delighted,” Wieland said of Richard Wagner, whose “Rise of the Valkyries” was featured in D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist propaganda film The Birth of A Nation.
While Richard Wagner’s reaction could only be presumed, what is certain is that Bumbry’s performance as “Black Venus” is still considered to be one of the most celebrated in opera history.
The audience cheered relentlessly for 30 minutes. The cast was brought back to the stage for an astonishing forty-two curtain calls.
The performance compelled First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to invite Bumbry to sing at The White House in 1962. Nearly fifty years later, Bumbry was celebrated alongside the likes of Robert De Niro and Bruce Springsteen as a member of the Kennedy Center Honors 2009 cohort.
“With a pitch and presence like no other, she became a global sensation, moving audiences at the great opera houses of the world,” President Barack Obama said during the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony at The White House in 2009.
“And performing here at the White House, it was said that she moved Jacqueline Kennedy to lean over and gently sing along the words to the president.”
Bumbry is also recognized for the rare feat of having a career that traversed into two vocal ranges.
“When most eras can boast four or perhaps five superstar sopranos and even fewer superstar mezzo-sopranos, for more than three decades and for millions of opera lovers, Grace Bumbry was both,” The Kennedy Center said on its website. “Her unique sound and her gripping stage presence, once experienced, simply cannot be forgotten.”
Along with her Kennedy Center Honors recognition, Bumbry also earned a Grammy award, was bestowed with the UNESCO, the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Academy of Music of the West, Italy’s Premio Giuseppe Verdi and was named Commandeur des Arts et Letres by the French government. She was enshrined on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in the Delmar Loop in 1992.
Her professional concert career ended in 1997, but she continued to make invaluable contributions to the field of opera as an educator.
“She displayed a range like few others – sometimes the middle ranges as a mezzo; sometimes the highs of a soprano; sometimes both in the same performance,” Obama said. “Grace not only triumphed in different techniques, but she also transformed them.”