Opera star is selling sports gear
mainThe US mezzo J’nai Bridges is the new voice of Converse.
Apparently, she once had to choose between basketball and opera.
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Good for Ms. Bridges…about time. I don’t think I’ve seen a US opera singer in a mainstream commercial since Roberta Peters, 40 years ago or so. (Polident??)
Well, good for her.
She and Ute Lemper sing on US composer David Chesky’s upcoming album “Songs for a Broken World,” due out April 23. The jacket blurb is by Gidon Kremer.
Funny, I was just a couple of weeks ago talking on the phone with David Chesky, and he was intrigued by my assertion that, in the age of recordings (which of course leaves out the greatest US-born opera star of the 19th-c., Sissieretta Jones), African-American women have been represented in the upper reaches of Opera about 400% more than the raw population data would suggest.
My off the top of my head list, of a couple of weeks ago:
Marian Anderson
Leontyne Price
Grace Bumbry
Shirley Verrett
Jessye Norman
Barbara Hendricks
Kathleen Battle
Denyce Graves
J’nai Bridges
IIRC, Miss Bridges sang at Jessye Norman’s funeral.
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Nothing wrong with endorsements. Fleming, Domingo, TeKanawa, Diego Flores all had endorsements. A singer is lucky if they can get that “gig”, especially now that jobs are scarce. Any extra money that comes in is good, although I’d rather do Rolex, since at least you get a beautiful watch. Rolex has a fabulous diamond watch and that is the one I would ask for, although you probably have to be Netrebko to get it. It costs $276,000. Years ago, L. Price, B. Sills, R. Nureyev, M. Fontaine all did Blackglama mink ads. In those years, a mink was the fur choice everyone wanted. Plus, the tag line was “What becomes a legend most,” and you got a mink coat. Anyway, if Ann Ziff, Chairman of the Met Board, can have a jewelry line, then so can everyone else.
Ann Ziff happens to be a gifted designer.
Much more than she is as an artistic administrator.
Itzhak Perlman did an American Express TV commercial many years ago. But I’ve been in this business long enough to remember when the young violinist Eugene Fodor was crucified for doing a print ad for Dewar’s whiskey.
As I recall, Garrick Ohlsson also endorsed Dewar’s. https://www.ebay.com/itm/121709001778? NOT to be confused with Pinchas Zukerman, who endorsed Smirnoff Vodka. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Violinist-Pinchas-Zukerman-photo-Smirnoff-Vodka-vintage-print-ad/392220714919
Print ads only elevated the career of Rise Stevens – Texaco Oil, cigarettes, silverware, etc. Her husband/manager exploited every angle, including Hollywood (Going My Way, among her feature films). Different era.
Perlman also did a commercial for some kind of frozen croissants. I remember him tossing off some casually virtuosic lick in double-stops and going “Is that flaky enough?”
Ah. Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svlCYY1SD8g&ab_channel=gamelovercommercials
talent, like water, always finds its true level eventually
…and here you are, Yujafan.
Brava to her. I just wish she was identified in the commercial so non-opera folks could learn who she is.