De Amerikaanse sopraan Martina Arroyo viert morgen haar 85ste verjaardag.
Martina Arroyo 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. In the beginning Arroyo did not take her training as seriously as her teacher Marinka Gurewich wanted, because at that point most of the major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, had never cast a black singer, so in her mind “opera wasn’t a real possibility.”
Arroyo first rose to prominence at the Zurich Opera between 1963–1965, after which she was one of the Metropolitan Opera’s leading sopranos between 1965 and 1978. During her years at the Metropolitan Opera, she was also a regular presence at the world’s best opera houses, performing on the stages of La Scala, Covent Garden, the Opéra National de Paris, the Teatro Colón, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the San Francisco Opera, to name just a few. She is best known for her performances of the Italian spinto repertoire, and in particular, her portrayals of Verdi and Puccini heroines. Her last opera performance was in 1991, after which she has devoted her time to teaching singing on the faculties of various universities in the United States and Europe. In die hoedanigheid heb ik haar ontmoet als jurylid van de Elisabethwedstrijd 1988 en 1992, maar echt contact heb ik niet met haar gehad.
Ronny De Schepper
dagelijks iets degelijks 