US soprano refuses Verona blackface

The Metropolitan Opera soprano Tamara Wilson dug in her heels at the Arena di Verona and last night refused to continue singing Aida in traditional dark makeup.

So how did that go?

In the small hours of the morning Tamara told us:

The show is over, it’s 1 am (the shows start at 9 here). I won the battle but lost the war. I did get the makeup lightened so I was still shades darker than my own skin but it wasn’t the pure black paint that it was to begin with. I had asked for sleeves but they didn’t add any. I’m hoping that was because it was so tight a turn around between the asking and the show. Maybe that will change for the 3rd show. I’m going to keep fighting.

Hey kids, become fluent in all languages because sticking up for yourself when no one understands you is extremely difficult. Learn from my mistake.

I’m going to answer everyone’s messages tomorrow but right now I’m going to sleep. I’m exhausted.

 

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After three and a half hours of trying every conceivable way of uploading the video I made, I’m writing the transcript until I can post it. (My internet here likes to go in and out and it would stall every upload I tried). I’ll try again later but I have to go to the theater now.

A post shared by Tamara Wilson (@tamara_wilson_soprano) on Jul 24, 2019 at 8:52am PDT