Grace Bumbry, one of the original African American women to achieve power on the global opera stage, has passed away. Let’s examine Grace Bumbry’s demise and the reasons behind it.
How did Grace Bumbry Pass Away?
On May 7, Grace Bumbry, 86, passed away at a hospital in Vienna. She was a vocalist with a wide vocal range, captivating appeal, and superstar brightness. David Lee Brewer, her publicist, announced her demise. In October, Ms. Bumbry had a stroke.
The location of Grace Bumbry’s birth, in St. Louis, where she was born on January 4, 1937, will receive her urn. On the other side, David Brewer would like to provide the chance for the famous singer’s fans and supporters to bid him a last goodbye. Brewer provides commemoration rites in Vienna, New York, and St. Louis, with St. Stephen’s Cathedral in mind for the Austrian capital.
The Reason Grace Bumbry Died:
Grace Bumbry was well-recognized for being extroverted. Given the terrible news, many people probably wonder what contributed to Grace Bumbry’s death. David Brewer, her adopted son, notified the APA of her passing. After suffering a stroke in New York the previous year, Grace Bumbry was transported back to Vienna in December. The soprano, in this instance, who had begun her career as a mezzo, passed away in the hospital.
Who was Grace Bumbry, Exactly?
Grace Bumbry is an American actor’s speaker who rose to prominence as a soprano before transitioning to mezzo-soprano. She was a pioneering African-American opera and classical singing community member along with Martina Arroyo, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, Shirley Verrett, and Reri Grist.
Marian Anderson’s successor in opera and classical music was Reri Grist. Following in their footsteps were succeeding generations of African-American opera and performance singers. Bumbry had a deep, strong voice with a characteristic resonant tone and a wide range. She was renowned for her speed and bel canto skill when she was at her best. Her fiery personality and theatrical performances were well known. She had just established herself as a lieder translator, recitalist, and teacher. She began focusing her professional efforts on Europe rather than the United States in the late 1980s.
As Princess Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo, Bumbry debuted at the Royal Opera House, La Scala, Covent Garden, and Metropolitan Opera in 1963, 1964, and 1965, respectively. At the Vienna State Opera, Bumbry debuted her soprano in 1964, first appearing as Verdi’s Lady Macbeth. In two outstanding productions of Carmen in 1966, one in Salzburg under the direction of Herbert von Karajan and the other for Bumbry’s debut with the San Francisco Opera, she sang Don José against Jon Vickers’ Don José.
She made a long-awaited comeback to the opera stage in Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha in 2010 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. In Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, she had a return performance in 2013 at the Vienna State Opera as the Countess. On the Walk of Fame in St. Louis, Bumbry has a star. She received several awards, including the UNESCO Prize, the Distinguished Alumna Prize from the Academy of Music of the West, the Premio Giuseppe Verdi in Italy, and the French government’s title of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres. She earned a Grammy for Best Opera Recording in 1972. She received one of the 2009 Kennedy Centre Honours on December 6 in recognition of her contributions to the performing arts. She paid homage to Justino Diaz, an opera singer and one of the 2021 Kennedy Centre Honours recipients, on December 5, 2021.
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