Grace Bumbry died today, aged 86
RIPAustrian media are reporting the death yesterday in a Vienna hospital of the epoch-making American soprano. She suffered a stroke some months ago.
The first black singer to sing at Bayreuth – Venus in Tannhäuser in 1961 – Bumbry went on to an immense career in Europe and the UK. It took some years for the Met to engage her.
An imposing character, she had a German tenor husband and a married London patron. She knew how to enjoy life and seldom looked back at the prejudice she suffered in her early years. Through the 1970s, she was a world star who could sell out any opera house. She could handle wharever life threw her way.
Eventually, she became a respected teacher.
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