Débria Brown
Encyclopedia
Débria M. Brown was an American opera
tic mezzo-soprano
who had an active international career that spanned five decades. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. She also worked occasionally as a dramatic actress on the stage and on television.
(Bachelor of Music
, 1958), where she sang Cherubino in the only production Norman Treigle
directed, Le nozze di Figaro, in 1957. She later studied singing and dance with Katherine Dunham
in New York City through a scholarship provided by the John Hay Whitney
Foundation.
In 1958, Brown made her professional opera debut with the New York City Opera
in the title role of Georges Bizet
's Carmen
, opposite her mentor, Treigle, as Escamillo. She returned to the City Opera in 1961, when she created the role of Tituba
in the world premiere of Robert Ward's The Crucible
, opposite Chester Ludgin
. In 1958 she made her Carnegie Hall
debut singing the role of Amenofi in the American Opera Society
's concert presentation of Gioachino Rossini's Mosè in Egitto
with conductor Arnold Gamson
, and Boris Christoff
in the name part.
from 1967–1970. In 1969, she appeared as Bess in George Gershwin
's Porgy and Bess
at the Vienna Volksoper
. In 1971 and 1974, she made appearances at the Bregenzer Festspiele
. In 1972–1973, she was a member of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
, and, in 1973, she sang Carmen at the Mississippi Opera, and made her debut at the Holland Festival
as Fortunata in the world premiere of Bruno Maderna
's Satyricon
. She returned to The Netherlands several more times during the 1970s and 1980s, including portraying Klytaemnestra in Richard Strauss
's Elektra
for her 1974 debut with the De Nederlandse Opera
. In 1977, she sang the roles of Zita in Giacomo Puccini
's Gianni Schicchi
and Frugola in Puccini's Il tabarro
at the Holland Festival.
In 1978, Brown performed at the Vienna State Opera
as Begonia in Hans Werner Henze
's Der junge Lord
, and at the Welsh National Opera
as Klytaemnestra. For the New Orleans Opera
Association, the mezzo-soprano sang Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera
, with Carlo Bergonzi
and Pablo Elvíra
, in 1981, and, in 1995, performed the role of the Filippyevna in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
's Eugene Onegin
, opposite Yuri Mazurok and Natalia Rom
. In 1991, she sang the role of Nicey in the revised version of Carlisle Floyd
's The Passion of Jonathan Wade at the Houston Grand Opera
; repeating that role at the Seattle Opera
in 1992 and at the San Diego Opera
in 1991 and 1996. In 1992, she appeared at the Florida Grand Opera
as Anacona in Alberto Franchetti
's Cristoforo Colombo
. In 1996 she performed the role of Ela's grandmother in the world premiere of David Carlson
's Dreamkeepers at the Utah Opera.
In 1992, Brown became a Professor of Voice and Artist in Residence at the University of Houston
. She remained in that position until her death nine years later. At the time of her death she was still performing, and had further unfulfilled engagements with American opera companies scheduled in the next few seasons. Posthumously, her "live" 2001 recording of Dominick Argento
's Casanova's Homecoming was released by Newport Classic
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
who had an active international career that spanned five decades. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. She also worked occasionally as a dramatic actress on the stage and on television.
Education and early career
Born in New Orleans, Brown was the daughter of the Reverend Bennett G. and Eunice Brown. She attended Xavier University of LouisianaXavier University of Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana , located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States, is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college with the distinction of being the only historically black Roman Catholic institution of higher education...
(Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
, 1958), where she sang Cherubino in the only production Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror....
directed, Le nozze di Figaro, in 1957. She later studied singing and dance with Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham
Katherine Mary Dunham was an American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator, and activist...
in New York City through a scholarship provided by the John Hay Whitney
John Hay Whitney
John Hay Whitney , colloquially known as "Jock" Whitney, was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and a member of the Whitney family.-Family:...
Foundation.
In 1958, Brown made her professional opera debut with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in the title role of Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, opposite her mentor, Treigle, as Escamillo. She returned to the City Opera in 1961, when she created the role of Tituba
Tituba
Tituba was a 17th-century slave belonging to Samuel Parris of Salem, Massachusetts. Tituba was one of the first three people accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials which took place in 1692. Tituba was the first person accused by Betty Parris and Abigail Williams of...
in the world premiere of Robert Ward's The Crucible
The Crucible (opera)
The Crucible is an English language opera written by Robert Ward based on the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It won both the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Citation. The libretto was lightly adapted from Miller's text by Bernard Stambler.Ward received a...
, opposite Chester Ludgin
Chester Ludgin
-Biography:Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America , as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini...
. In 1958 she made her Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
debut singing the role of Amenofi in the American Opera Society
American Opera Society
The American Opera Society was a New York City based musical organization that presented concert and semi-staged performances of operas between 1951 and 1970...
's concert presentation of Gioachino Rossini's Mosè in Egitto
Mosè in Egitto
Mosè in Egitto is a three-act opera written by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, which was based on a play by Francesco Ringhieri, L'Osiride, of 1760....
with conductor Arnold Gamson
Arnold Gamson
Arnold U. Gamson is an American conductor who is particularly known for his work within the field of opera. He notably co-founded and served as the Music Director and principal conductor of the American Opera Society from 1950-1960...
, and Boris Christoff
Boris Christoff
Boris Christoff was a Bulgarian opera singer...
in the name part.
International success
From 1962–1965, Brown was a member of the Stadttheater Aachen, during which time she appeared as a guest artist at numerous opera houses in Germany. She was then committed to the Staatsoper StuttgartStaatsoper Stuttgart
The Staatsoper Stuttgart is a German opera company based in Stuttgart, Germany.-History:The Stuttgart Staatsoper forms part of the Stuttgart State Theatre , which is a a three-branch-theatre complex and represents the largest theatre of its kind in Europe...
from 1967–1970. In 1969, she appeared as Bess in George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
's Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
at the Vienna Volksoper
Vienna Volksoper
The Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....
. In 1971 and 1974, she made appearances at the Bregenzer Festspiele
Bregenzer Festspiele
Bregenzer Festspiele is a performing arts festival which is held every July and August in Bregenz, Austria.Founded in 1946, the festival presents a wide variety of musical and theatrical events in several venues:...
. In 1972–1973, she was a member of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
The Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe is a theatre and opera house in Karlsruhe, Germany. It has existed in its present form and place at Ettlinger Tor since 1975...
, and, in 1973, she sang Carmen at the Mississippi Opera, and made her debut at the Holland Festival
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival is The Netherlands' oldest and largest performing arts festival, and takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theater, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster...
as Fortunata in the world premiere of Bruno Maderna
Bruno Maderna
Bruno Maderna was an Italian conductor and composer. For the last ten years of his life he lived in Germany and eventually became a citizen of that country.-Biography:...
's Satyricon
Satyricon (opera)
Satyricon is a chamber opera by Bruno Maderna with a libretto adapted by Ian Strasfogel and the composer from Petronius. It was written during Maderna's last illness in 1973 and premièred as part of the Holland Festival on 16 March 1976, in Scheveningen, The Netherlands.The work consists of 16...
. She returned to The Netherlands several more times during the 1970s and 1980s, including portraying Klytaemnestra in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Elektra
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
for her 1974 debut with the De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera , in Amsterdam, is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Het Muziektheater, a modern building designed by Cees Dam which opened in 1986....
. In 1977, she sang the roles of Zita in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
and Frugola in Puccini's Il tabarro
Il tabarro
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
at the Holland Festival.
In 1978, Brown performed at the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
as Begonia in Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
's Der junge Lord
Der junge Lord
Der junge Lord is an opera in two acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Ingeborg Bachmann, after Wilhelm Hauff's Der Affe als Mensch from Der Scheik von Alexandria und seine Sklaven .The style and plot owe much to Italian opera buffa, with the influence of Vincenzo Bellini and...
, and at the Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
as Klytaemnestra. For the New Orleans Opera
New Orleans Opera
Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to...
Association, the mezzo-soprano sang Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, with Carlo Bergonzi
Carlo Bergonzi
Carlo Bergonzi is an Italian operatic tenor. Although he performed and recorded some bel canto and verismo roles, he is above all associated with the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, including a large number of the composer's lesser-known works that he helped revive...
and Pablo Elvíra
Pablo Elvira
Pablo Elvira was a Puerto Rican baritone. Elvira was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and began his musical career playing jazz trumpet there, with his uncle, Rafael Elvira, in his orchestra, he continued in his father's band and later started his own band who played at the Hotel San Juan...
, in 1981, and, in 1995, performed the role of the Filippyevna in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, opposite Yuri Mazurok and Natalia Rom
Natalia Rom
Natalia Rom, soprano, was born in Kazan, in the Soviet Union , and graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory. In late 1976, she emigrated to New Orleans, where she attended Loyola University's College of Music, where she studied voice with Patricia Havranek...
. In 1991, she sang the role of Nicey in the revised version of Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...
's The Passion of Jonathan Wade at the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
; repeating that role at the Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera
The Seattle Opera is an opera company located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as the company's first general director through 1983, Seattle Opera's season runs from August to late May, with five or six operas offered and with eight to ten performances each, often...
in 1992 and at the San Diego Opera
San Diego Opera
The San Diego Opera Association is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California and is a member of OPERA America. It was founded in 1950 to present productions by San Francisco Opera in the San Diego area...
in 1991 and 1996. In 1992, she appeared at the Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera is an American opera company based in Miami, Florida. FGO was created in 1994 from the consolidation of two opera companies in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region:...
as Anacona in Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:Alberto Franchetti was born in Turin, a Jewish nobleman of independent means. He studied first in Venice, then in Dresden under Felix Draeseke, and finally at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger. His first major success...
's Cristoforo Colombo
Cristoforo Colombo (opera)
Cristoforo Colombo is an opera in four acts and an epilogue by Alberto Franchetti to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica...
. In 1996 she performed the role of Ela's grandmother in the world premiere of David Carlson
David Carlson
David Carlson American composer.Carlson studied theory and composition at the Los Angeles High School of the Arts and with Leonard Stein at the California Institute of the Arts...
's Dreamkeepers at the Utah Opera.
In 1992, Brown became a Professor of Voice and Artist in Residence at the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
. She remained in that position until her death nine years later. At the time of her death she was still performing, and had further unfulfilled engagements with American opera companies scheduled in the next few seasons. Posthumously, her "live" 2001 recording of Dominick Argento
Dominick Argento
Dominick Argento is an American composer, best known as a leading composer of lyric opera and choral music...
's Casanova's Homecoming was released by Newport Classic
Newport Classic
Newport Classic, Ltd, is a record label of classical music, and is located in Newport, Rhode Island.In its catalog are recordings of both familiar and unusual works, including Casanova's Homecoming, A Waterbird Talk, Trouble in Tahiti, A Ceremony of Carols, Médée , Il campanello di notte, The Jumping...
.
Further reading
- Blacks in Opera, An encyclopedia of people and companies, 1873-1993, by Eric Ledell Smith, McFarland & CompanyMcFarland & CompanyMcFarland & Company, Inc. is a book publisher of primarily academic and adult nonfiction based in Jefferson, North Carolina. Its president and editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who began the enterprise in 1979...
, Jefferson, NC (1995) - Who's Who among African Americans, Ninth edition, 1996/1997, Gale ResearchGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (1996) - Who's Who among African Americans, Tenth edition, 1998/1999, Gale ResearchGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (1997) - Who's Who among African Americans, 11th edition, Gale ResearchGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (1998) - Who's Who among African Americans, 12th edition, Gale GroupGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (1999) - Who's Who among African Americans, 13th edition, Gale GroupGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (2000) - Who's Who among African Americans, 14th edition, Gale GroupGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (2001) - Who's Who among African Americans, 15th edition, Gale GroupGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (2002) - Who's Who among African Americans, 16th edition, Gale GroupGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (2003) - Who's Who among African Americans, 17th edition, Gale GroupGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (2004) - Who's Who among Black Americans, Seventh edition, 1992/1993, Gale ResearchGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (1992) - Who's Who among Black Americans, Eighth edition, 1994/1995, Gale ResearchGale (publisher)Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, but became part of Cengage Learning in 2007.The company, formerly known...
, Detroit (1994)