George Shirley
From: John Malveaux, www.MusicUNTOLD.com
6 Feb. 2014 12:47 PM
Tenor and Educator
George Shirley is a living American treasure who donated performances
for MusicUNTOLD concert to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of
Emanicpation Proclamation that received a delayed broadcast on KUSC
Classical Radio, KUSC.org and streamed on-demand for thirty days.
2014 African American Heritage Month along with any day in the
calendar year is an appropriate time to reflect on a talk of four
years ago by the gentle but historic George Shirley. See
http://operagasm.com/opera-and-the-black-singer/
From:
Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com
6
Feb. 2014 16:55
This
is a very important statement from George Shirley and I am not
suggesting a disagreement on the question of casting for the role.
At the same time there is more than comfort in having Catherine
Malfitano actually look like Salome (the video with Sir Willard White
might be X-rated by time the seventh veil is discarded) and I don't
think makeup does the full job on Plácido Domingo's Otello. But, as
an ardent viewer of BBC TV, I find it a welcome change to find a
Black cast member with absolutely no reference to race in the plot.
And I remember what the late mezzo-soprano Blanche Foreman (she was a
magnificent talent!) told me when she was cast as Carmen during her
doctoral days at Indiana. The dean wanted her to wear a wig. Her
teacher, Eileen Farrell, took a characteristically well-articulated
stand in opposition.
From:
John Malveaux, www.MusicUNTOLD.com
7
Feb. 2014 01:18
I
offer the following comment based on personal experience with several
distinguished opera artists of color singing arias on MusicUNTOLD
programs. If Denyce Graves, Latonia Moore, George Shirley, Donnie
Ray Albert, or Mark Steven Doss wanted a role but was told they could
not bring 'visual integrity' to the role, I would tell the
responsible casting person, I don't want to see his opera production
but I would like to buy a recording of the opera with Denyce Graves,
Latonia Moore, George Shirley, Donnie Ray Albert, or Mark Steven
Doss.
MusicUNTOLD is developing an 80th birthday celebration for
Marilyn Horne with target date of June 7, 2014 in Long Beach. Ms.
Horne and i attended the same high school, Long Beach Polytechnic,
although some years apart. I am reminded that Dorothy Dandridge
played the role of Carmen in the movie Carmen Jones, but Marilyn
Horne sang the opera parts.
From:
George I. Shirley
The
J. Edgar Maddy Distinguished
University
Emeritus Professor of Music (Voice)
University
of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
7
Feb. 11:39
Thank you, John, for
the complimentary remarks, and for the reference to my online article
for Operagasm. I offer below some additional thoughts on the changes
that are altering the operatic landscape.
Movies and TV excite
from viewers certain expectations that differ in essence from those
demanded by the operatic art form. Although the visual is important
in any theatrical enterprise, the voice - the reason opera exists in
the first place - has until today been recognized as the principal
component that distinguishes this genre of theatre from its peers.
Visual properties drive decision-making in the film industry, while
opera demands voices of exceptional quality capable of penetrating
orchestral sonority, many of which voices flow from bodies deemed
un-photogenic. In film and video, microphones empower sound engineers
to compensate for vocal inadequacies, thus enabling singers with the
"look," rather than the requisite amplitude or resonance of
voice, to sound vocally equal to the task. Recent conversations with
opera lovers who attend live performances featuring certain of
today's media stars too often reveal dissatisfaction with their
performances in the opera house because their voices, in terms of
amplitude and/or quality, prove incapable of establishing an adequate
partnership with the orchestra. Thus, the art form is vitiated, and
microphone technology subtly invades the opera house disguised as
"electronic enhancement" in order to maintain a semblance
of the creative vision of those composers for whom the naked voice
was more important than the naked body.
"Pace e gioia
sia con voi..."
Please
consider supporting aspiring young singers with tax-deductible
donations to the following:
The
George Shirley Voice Scholarship at
www.music.umich.edu/alumni_donors/leading_the_way/documents/EndowmentsPage_019.pdf
The
George Shirley African American Art Song and Operatic Aria
Competition at www.videmus.org/index.php?fwa=georgeShirley
Detroit's
historic Art Center Music School is in process of being reborn. Check
out the following webpage:
www.friendsofartcentermusicschool.net
From:
John Malveaux, www.MusicUNTOLD.com
7
Feb. 2014 12:13 PM
Professor,
your insight is matched by serious humor. How do you assess African
American progress in opera? Although we have a competently trained
pool of emerging artists, I can not visualize any of them achieving
251 performances at the Met as you achieved in your career. Is the
Met a standard for today? How do we assess our progress? Who controls
our progress?
From:
Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com
7
Feb. 2014 15:13
In
supplement: A few decades ago the very best recordings (especially
Verdi operas) almost always included such singers as Leontyne Price,
Grace Bumbry, Reri Grist, Martina Arroyo, Gwendolyn Killebrew ... And
now with the doors supposedly opened and such a large number of
brilliant Black artists -- available -- including now males -- what
has happened?
From:
John Malveaux, www.MusicUNTOLD.com
7
Feb. 2014 16:44
The mission of MusicUNTOLD include promoting diversity and human
dignity. This is a personal story but it speaks to the earlier point of
'visual integrity'. MusicUNTOLD tentatively scheduled to co-produce the West Coast premiere of the folk opera HARRIET TUBMAN: When I Crossed
That Line to Freedom in August 2014. The world premiere of the concert
version is this month at the Irondale Theater in Brooklyn. The composer
does not permit blind casting. With great reservation, I accepted the
requirement. For another/separate reason, the August 2014 performance
has been dropped and MusicUNTOLD is reviewing other small operas by
African American composers.
Considering the incalculable benefits of Porgy & Bess to African American artists, do you think little presenters like MusicUNTOLD should absolutely follow non-discriminatory casting or make exceptions for projects that speak to significant historical occurances such as the 150th Anniversary of 13th Amendment-ending slavery in the United States.
Considering the incalculable benefits of Porgy & Bess to African American artists, do you think little presenters like MusicUNTOLD should absolutely follow non-discriminatory casting or make exceptions for projects that speak to significant historical occurances such as the 150th Anniversary of 13th Amendment-ending slavery in the United States.
From:
John Malveaux, www.MusicUNTOLD.com
7
Feb 2014 21:09
http://www.gwendolynkillebrew.com/vitae.html
Comment by email:
A major concern is dehumanization, overwhelmed by things
technological. It is in the mind, heart and spirit where art is sent and
received. The blockage of the best possible interpretation by
prejudicial barriers of gender-"race"(sic) physical condition, and age
is much with us. This site and the artists and scholars it draws are
much welcomed. Thanks. [Gwendoline Y. Fortune]
Comment by email:
I, truly, enjoyed this discussion on the role
of the visual in opera, and contemporary entertainment, in general. I am
progressively disappointed with the over-intrusion of technology,
visual and auditory,--and "marketing" the lack- into the production of
music I have always been appalled by the racism. It is a pleasure to
learn of the many "sisters and brothers" who are "school music"
devotees. If I could jet to a performance every day. Asians are not the
only ones who are saving the tradition.
Thinking myself in the role of "amateur" as it once was, a
dedicated lover, student, and practitioner of a craft or art, whether
one earned one's "keep" by that route or not, I studied voice (bel
canto) and sang "at wakes and weddings and every..." as the Irish tune
goes, sometimes for dinner, sometimes for an envelope with small
amounts of cash, always with love of the music, preparation, and the
desire to touch. 
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