Blackness in Opera ed. by Naomi André, Karen M. Bryan, Eric Saylor (review)

Blackness: reference to people of African descent or to cultural representations of people of African descent in public culture; something bearing little resemblance to white or whiteness.

The epigraph above represents my conflation or paraphrase of the numerous descriptions listed in both print and web-based dictionaries about what defines or constitutes blackness. During the past decade I and many other musicologists, cultural theorists, performers, composers, and public intellectuals have engaged in discussions (oral and written) as to how blackness is defined by and interpreted through popular culture in the forms of music, literature, the visual arts, film, and theater. Much of this dialogue has continued to advance many of the theoretical approaches introduced by pioneering scholars such as Eileen Southern, Dena Epstein, Dominique-René de Lerma, Josephine Wright, and Samuel Floyd, which range from the acknowledgment of the Africanist presence in vernacular and art music to theoretical examinations of cultural practice. But it has also included scholars who have posited that race and “blackness” are artificial constructs that are not representative of authentic cultural expressions. These varying positions have created a rich and ever-growing body of scholarship that is shifting paradigms and sparking enriched musicological discussions. The anthology Blackness in Opera is one of the newest offerings to this discourse, and it seeks to focus all of these theoretical debates around the single genre of opera. Just as the word “blackness” represents a wide palette of colors and shades as well as a myriad of experiences, this scholarly examination of opera is diverse in scope and theoretical approach. The timeliness of this monograph cannot be greatly overstated. For decades jazz, blues, gospel, and various forms of concert music have been examined, but opera has remained profoundly absent.

Editors Naomi André, Karen Bryan, and Eric Saylor have drawn together an eclectic group of contributors whose areas of study stretch across the fields of musicology, sociology, English, and women’s studies. The combination makes this work an intriguing blend of different methodologies that all coalesce at the examination of how “blackness” is constructed in both canonical and lesser-known operas. One should not assume that this monograph follows the typical reclamation of lost or missing history of black opera trope used in similar works on gender, regional, and/or nationalistic identities. While there are a few essays that address lesser-known operas like William Grant Still’s Blue Steel, many of the essays seek to progress the musicological discussions of well-known works like Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha or examine constructions of femininity and masculinity via works such as Verdi’s Otello, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and Hammerstein’s Carmen Jones. This work’s analysis of blackness is not centered on the United States but is more diasporic in scope, which greatly adds to its appeal. Of the thirteen essays contained in the monograph, two focus on the portrayal of Africans on the operatic stage, while six discuss operas containing characters from the African Caribbean or the United States. Two of the entries focus on African Europeans such as Verdi’s Otello and Krenek’s Jonny, while the last is recollections of renowned tenor George Shirley’s experiences on the operatic stage.

The editors’ intentions with this collection reveal just how complex the examination of blackness in opera can be, especially when one moves beyond content, plots, locales, and librettos. The genre of opera raises issues largely avoided by other forms of music in that one must either ignore or acknowledge the common practice of “cultural passing” that often occurs in casting of particular operatic roles. By “cultural passing” I mean the instances in which nonblack performers are called to “blacken up” for certain operatic roles (most notably with productions of Otello and Aida) and where black performers negotiate their “space” on the operatic stage in roles that are largely read and understood to be “nonblack.” As aptly stated by the editors...