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Marian at the Met (1955): The Story
In September of 1954, Marian attended a party thrown by her manager, Sol Hurok. Another guest casually asked her if she'd ever considered performing in opera. Marian had been asked this question before, but never by such a prominent man in the field: this time, it was asked by Rudolf Bing, the General Manager of The Metropolitan Opera. He wanted Marian to break yet another barrier by becoming the first African-American singer in The Met's 71 year history.
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Marian and Rudolf Bing
on the stage of the
Metropolitan Opera,
October, 1954.
Photo credit: Sedge LeBlang. |
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Marian discussing her
Metropolitan Opera debut in 1955.
Audio Link credit:
from Marian Anderson Collection,
Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
University of Pennsylvania.
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Bing did not set out to make Met history when he took its helm in 1950; he was interested in maintaining the artistic integrity of the famed opera house above all else. As he told one reporter:
I will not exclude anyone because he is colored. Nor will I engage anyone because he is colored. It is not my job to further the Negroes' cause, however sympathetic I may be. It is my job to run The Met. I intend to do this on the basis of quality alone. I am not straining every muscle to find Negro singers. I am looking for the best, regardless of race or creed."1
As Marian and other African-American singers like Paul Robeson gained fame and prominence, their absence from The Met stage became more noticeable. Then, in 1944, László Halász founded New York City Opera. Halász had met Marian on one of her tours through Europe, and was shocked to hear her stories of American discrimination. He was determined that his opera company would be open to all performers, and City Opera did employ many African-Americans. In fact, at one point Marian had been asked to sing at City Opera, but Hurok wanted to hold out for The Met. He insisted that as one of the world's top performers, Marian should make her opera debut in one of the world's top opera houses.
Marian's widespread public appeal and international success made her the ideal artist to break The Met's color barrier. Bing offered Marian the chance to sing Ulrica in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera. While the role is a relatively small one, Ulrica has excellent music and is a central character to the plot.
Marian was too flabbergasted at Bing's offer to respond immediately. She had never sung in an opera before, although many operatic arias and scenes were already in her repertoire. She knew that the part of Ulrica was very challenging, extending all the way up to a high A, which was no longer as comfortable in Marian's voice as it once was. After mulling over what Bing had said for nearly a month, Marian agreed to his offer in October. Her contract stipulated $1000 per performance, the highest fee paid by The Met at that time.
Rehearsals for Un Ballo in Maschera didn't begin until late December, but Marian began thinking about her role almost from the moment she signed her contract. Because she had never performed in an opera before, a large support system was set up to help her get comfortable with the music, the characterization, and the stage movement and acting of the role.
Each day brought a new step in the collective enterprise that is opera. We had sessions with piano in which singing and acting were fused. Then came the rehearsals of the duet with the soprano...next the tenor...joined us for the trio. The entire act was assembled, and then I met the chorus and later the orchestra.2
Days after Marian's debut was announced, tickets for her first performance had already sold out. Press came from as far away as the West Indies to witness history in the making, and the audience included Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Truman, and the Duchess of Windsor. Marian's whole family came from Philadelphia and had the best seats in the house. From the moment the curtain rose to reveal Anderson in Ulrica's cave, the audience roared its support for her. The ovation did not stop for nearly 5 minutes.
The curtain rose on the second scene, in which Ulrica appears, and I was there on the stage, mixing the witch's brew. I trembled, and when the audience applauded and applauded before I could sing a note I felt myself tightening into a knot. I had always assured people that I was not nervous about singing, but at that moment I was as nervous as a kitten.3
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Marian takes a well-deserved
bow for her Met debut performance,
January 7, 1955.
Photo credit: Sedge LeBlang. |
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Luckily, Marian's nerves did not get the better of her. Her performance brought down the house. As the leading ladies, Marian and Zinka Milanov (playing Amelia) came out for their own special curtain call at the end of the act. Milanov threw her arms around Marian and kissed her cheek, driving the audience even wilder than it already was. When she was finally allowed to retreat to her dressing room after the performance, she was greeted by many bouquets and over two thousand telegrams of congratulations. Marian's performance impressed the critics too. As the New York Times review put it,
There was no moment in which Miss Anderson's interpretation was commonplace or repetitive in effect. In Ulrica's one-half act, by her native sensibility, intelligence, and vocal art, Miss Anderson stamped herself in the memory and the lasting esteem of those who listened.4
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Marian prepares to go onstage.
Photo credit: Sedge LeBlang. |
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That season Marian also performed Ulrica when the production traveled to Philadelphia; she would sing the role in the 1955-56 season as well, four times in New York, and once each in Cleveland and Boston. Three weeks after Marian's premiere, African-American baritone Robert McFerrin made his debut in Aida. In the '55-56 season, another debut was made, this time by the African-American soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs, who had won the Marian Anderson Scholarship in 1947. Other Scholarship winners and contestants would continue to break down the racial divide at The Met. Leontyne Price (who debuted in 1961) and Jessye Norman (who made her debut in 1983) both participated in this competition, and went on to become two of The Met's most beloved divas.
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