Celebrating the first black man to star at the Metropolitan Opera

A reader reminds me that Black History Month is drawing to a close, so here’s a tribute to the first African-American male soloist to sing at the Met: Robert McFerrin. Like many African-Americans, his entrée to the Met was through the safe route of Verdi’s Aida. He made his debut as Aida’s manipulative father, Amonasro, on January 27, 1955.

Why do I say "safe"? Because Amonasro and Aida are Ethiopians, not Europeans. Clearly, the easiest way to get white audiences to accept black singers was to introduce them in African roles. It’s still difficult for some American audiences to accept black men in tenor roles where they play the lovers, not fathers, devils, or kings. But that’s a rant for another day.

McFerrin began his singing career as a boy in a gospel trio with his brothers. Their father, a Baptist preacher, wasn’t thrilled when his son aspired to a career in the New York opera scene. After service in WWII, McFerrin followed the operatic path available to him: a minor role in Kurt Weill’s African musical Lost in the Stars on Broadway, a role in William Grant Still's Haitian opera, Troubled Island, and Valentin in Faust and Amonasro with the National Negro Opera Company. The pioneering impresario Boris Goldovsky gave him a chance with color-blind casting as Rigoletto at Tanglewood in 1949 and later in Goldovsky’s own company as Valentin and in Iphigenie en Tauride.

In 1953 McFerrin won the Met’s "Auditions of the Air." Although he received more than a year of training, he was never awarded the contract that traditionally came with the award. Finally, Sir Rudolf Bing integrated the Met’s roster with Marion Anderson's famous debut as the black sorceress Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) on January 1, 1955. That's another safe role for an African-American! McFerrin followed her into the history books a few weeks later.

Want to hear Robert McFerrin sing? Then rent Porgy and Bess (1959) starring Sidney Poitier as Porgy. Yup, that’s McFerrin supplying Poitier's voice!

Robert McFerrin…McFerrin…why does that name sound familiar? He was the father of another amazing American singer, 10-time Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin (Robert McFerrin, Jr.) Bobby’s sister Brenda became a Motown artist. The fact that their mother Sara was also a singer and pianist had something to do with their success, I'll bet!

Interesting detail: it was six years to the day after McFerrin’s Met debut that Leontyne Price first conquered the Met as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore. And she played a white chick! Here she is with Franco Corelli as Manrico.

But who was the first African-American soloist to appear at La Scala in Milan? Find out here: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1670