Robert McFerrin Lent His Voice to Opera History
African-American opera performers Shirley Verrett and George Shirley remember a black opera pioneer. Robert McFerrin was the first black male soloist to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. That was in 1955. Verrett and Shirley share stories about McFerrin's voice and his legacy.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host:
The opera world has laid to rest a pioneer.
SOUNDBITE OF "AIDA"
ELLIOTT: Robert McFerrin, Sr. broke racial barriers in 1955 when he made his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera as Amonasro in "Aida". That made him the first black male soloist in the company's history. McFerrin's performance at the Met came just weeks after legend Marian Anderson became the fist black woman to perform there. McFerrin spent three seasons at the Met and performed in ten operas. He reached a wider audience as the singing voice of Sidney Poitier in the 1959 film "Porgy and Bess".
SOUNDBITE OF "AIDA"
ELLIOTT: For African American opera singers Shirley Verrett and George Shirley, Robert McFerrin was an inspiration. We invited them to share their memories of his contribution and his voice as heard here in a 1956 recording of Rigoletto. He's in the title role.
SOUNDBITE OF "RIGOLETTO"
Mr. GEORGE SHIRLEY (Opera Singer): He was a man who was diminutive in physique but a true giant in the terms of his heart and his artistry. He possessed an incredibly beautiful and powerful voice; actually one would wonder how that sound was made by a man of such small physical stature. But that's - that was God's gift.
SOUNDBITE OF "RIGOLETTO"
Ms. SHIRLEY VERRETT (Opera Singer): He's a hero. He's absolutely a hero to me. He was a great singer. I remember the last time I heard him sing, actually was my friend here, who's sitting right across from me, had invited me to participate in the National Opera Association. And I had not seen Robert McFerrin for many, many, many, many years, and he absolutely floored me because this man had a tremendous stroke and he sang (unintelligible) from "A Masked Ball", "Un ballo in maschera" by Verdi. And he sang that aria that night and he touched one heart. Even though the voice was not as I remembered as a student, it didn't matter to me. Because there was enough of that great voice left, and then the feeling of the words, understanding the words, being absolutely - how can I say - engrossed in the moment, painting pictures for us because of the way he uses that musicality. This is what he was all about.
SOUNDBITE OF "RIGOLETTO"
Mr. SHIRLEY: I got from him a directness, a directness and an honesty in conversation with him. There was no artifice. There was great artistry in what he did as a singer, as a performer, but there was no artifice. There was no phoniness and there was no stuff going on.
Ms. VERRETT: You're right about that.
Mr. SHIRLEY: Yeah, I had the great pleasure of visiting with him a number of years ago in his apartment in St. Louis. And we were talking and he - he loved to joke and he was a very jocular person. But he would laugh - he had a very strong, what I would call falsetto content in his voice, which was the reason why it sounded as youthful as it did so late in his life. And he would laugh on a high C. I mean he would just cut loose with a whoop that was way up there. And I - it caught me by surprise.
ELLIOTT: Can you imitate that?
Ms. VERRETT: Well, I might blow the microphone out. I don't want to do that here. I'm going to have to back off the mike, because - just a minute. Let's see.
SOUNDBITE OF WHOOP
ELLIOTT: No, really way up high. Yes, that's really great.
SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC
Mr. SHIRLEY: Mr. Mack, along with Marian Anderson, assured us that, yes, you belong here. You know, whenever someone crosses a new barrier, whenever they open a door, it's because someone on the inside has opened that door; you know, rarely does someone kick it down from outside.
So Bob had won the prestigious Metropolitan Opera (unintelligible) which was a statement on the part of the management of the Metropolitan Opera that we believe in you. You are someone who belongs here and we are going to prove that to the audience and to the world by giving you this role, giving you this opportunity to stand in front of the Metropolitan Opera audience and open your mouth and sing from your heart. So that plus his belief in God and the love of his family, and all of the input that had gone into making him the man and artist that he was throughout the decades of his life that far, gave him the belief that, yeah, I can do this. I can do this thing.
Ms. VERRETT: We never walk alone, in other words. He knew that he could do it and then somebody was there at that moment in history to understand also that he could do it. And he, with Ms. Anderson and others, opened the door for us.
SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC
ELLIOTT: Robert McFerrin was buried yesterday in St. Louis. He died of a heart attack last week at the age of 85. He was the father of jazz and pop singer Bobby McFerrin.
SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC
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