Aida's brothers and sisters (I)

Black voices in opera

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Program notes

Through iconic performances by great African American opera singers and interviews with the likes of Grace Bumbry, Barbara Hendricks, Betty Allen, George Shirley, Shirley Verrett, Simon Estes, Camilla Williams, Martina Arroya, and Anne Brown, this film explores the breakthroughs and challenges in the lives of Black opera singers in the US, from the great Marian Anderson — the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera — through mixed reactions to Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, to the complex realities facing Black classical singers in the 20th century and beyond.

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