Part II - Your Favorites: MARIAN ANDERSON

Описание: THIS PART IS FOR YOUR FAVORITES!
What´s your opinion about american Contralto Miss Marian Anderson? Please comment!

Marian Anderson, Contralto (1897-1993)

Giuseppe Verdi - Un Ballo in Maschera
Re dell'abisso
Conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos
(Recorded 1955)

My personal opinion: No, I don´t want to tell you again the fairytale of the first African-American soloist at the Met, a taboo broken by Rudolf Bing. My special association with Miss Anderson is when I first heard her singing Schubert´s "Ständchen" in german language. It was the magic only a few possessed, you can hear it currently after a single line. Some months ago, I was asked, what makes a singer great? Well, I believe it´s the gift of incomparableness coupled with great talent.
Marian Anderson was born in1897 in Pennsylvania, the daughter of devout christians. The whole family was highly active in the church´s musical life, and Marian took singing lessons. After highschool she applied to an all-white music-school, but was turned away, because she was black. Marian's principal of her high school offered to help her and enabled her to meet talented music teacher Giuseppe Boghetti. She studied privately with Boghetti and Agnes Reifsnyder. In 1925, Marian Anderson won a competition, sponsored by the New York Philharmonic. The prize: A concert-performance. The result: A big success with both, audienc and critics. In 1928 she sang for the first time at Carnegie Hall. The voice was rich and vibrant, and most of her career she was heard in concerts and recitals. Anderson declined most offered contracts to perform on stage (but she sang opera arias in her concerts). Her repertoire ranged from Lieder to Traditionals and Spirituals. Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice. With the aid of President Roosevelt, she gave an open-air concert for more than 75,000 people. She broke barriers and with her arrival at the Met on January 7, 1955 she became a legend. The board of directors were not among those, who gave him congratulations - so Bing said sardonically. It was Anderson herself, who said, she didn´t like her performance of Ulrica that day. The Met-debut was long over-due, but it came too late. Nevertheless it was a new beginning: For Price, Bumbry, Arroyo and all others. In my personal opinion, Miss Anderson wasn´t a singer for the operatic-stage. She made her best recordings in the 1930s and in her usual concert repertoire. When she recorded her scenes from "Ballo" with Peerce and Warren, it only was a concession. Anyway I choose her Ulrica for my presentation of Miss Anderson - a performance whose political meaning was more important than the quality of its artistry. With 43 nominations Marian Anderson is up to place position 20.
And with this contribution we´re in the Top Twenty of your favorites!

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