UC Davis

This project focuses on the long-neglected career of Lillian Evanti (1890-1967), one of the first African Americans to sing opera in Europe. I employ a biographical lens to explore how Black classical singers in the first half of the twentieth century negotiated expectations to perform their race sonically, investigating Evanti’s background and motivations, along with the varying social and artistic contexts of her performances in Europe, North America, and South America. She was type-cast into exotic roles for her debut as the Indian princess Lakmé in Delibes’ eponymous opera in France in 1925. However, in Italy she frequently portrayed white characters, whereas in Germany and the U.S., discrimination limited her to the recital stage. On her song programs she placed African American spirituals alongside Lieder and opera aria thus responding to ideas held by the Black elite who saw opportunity for cultural vindication through merging Black folk music with classical forms. In the 1940s, Evanti sang African American spirituals across Latin America as an informal cultural ambassador thus promoting Black American art as an element of American culture that could unite the Western hemisphere. In 1943, she finally got her chance to perform an opera on American soil, singing the role of Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata with the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC). Throughout, I draw on newspaper reviews and archival records to analyze style and genre expectations for Black singers, which promoted stereotypes while also offering opportunities for subversion and infiltration that challenged the whiteness of opera and classical song.