On February 12, 1958, opera singer Gloria Davy became the first black woman to sing the legendary performance of “Aida” at the New York Met. The role of Aida, (whose character was an Ethiopian princess), had always been played by white singers in dark makeup. Davy was a beauty of the stage and had already performed for many years in Europe. She was praised for the use of her soprano tone in a unique way. She knew how to attain maximum vocal ability at the lowest volumes.
The star performer often graced theaters with the music of Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten and Paul Hindemith. During the 1960’s, Davy toured in Berlin, Aachen, Geneva, Vienna, London, Strasbourg, Mannheim and Milan.
In 1954, Davy replaced the great Leontyne Price in the international tour of Porgy and Bess. Davy performed at the New York Met 15 times between 1958 and 1961. Her final performance was Verdi’s Trovatore opposite Giulio Gari.
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Ms. Davy was my aunt. On behalf of her family, I would like to thank Tom Joyner for highlighting her accomplishments. It is unfortunate that many Americans were not aware of her contribution to our culture.
I’d like to thank Tom Joyner and staff for highlighting some of these Little Known Black History Facts. This was a phenomenal woman…I just wished I had heard about her…through school, black history month of something…but I never heard of her. Countless treasures are lost in the annuls of time because we let our history die.
This article was a little short, they failed to mention that she just died last month. She was pretty!!!
Beautiful Lady!