Anne Brown
Anne Brown | |
---|---|
Born | Annie Wiggins Brown August 9, 1912 |
Died | March 13, 2009 Oslo, Norway | (aged 96)
Anne Brown (August 9, 1912 – March 13, 2009)[1] was an American lyric soprano for whom George Gershwin rewrote the part of "Bess" into a leading role in the original production of his opera Porgy and Bess in 1935.[2]
She was also a radio and concert singer. She settled in Norway in 1948 and later became a Norwegian citizen.
Early life and career (1912–1936)
A native of
As an African-American, she was not allowed to attend a Roman Catholic elementary school in her native Baltimore.[7] She trained at Morgan College and then applied to the Peabody Institute, but was rejected from the school due to her race.[8]
Brown then applied to the
In 1933, she was a second-year graduate student at
[Gershwin] would telephone and say, 'I've finished up to page 33 or so. Come down; I want you to sing it. When can you come down?' 'When I get out of school today,' I would say. I'd always start off singing "Summertime". I loved it so. Then I would sing whatever he had written since the last time I'd been there, whatever the roles might be – sometimes I even sang Sportin' Life, sometimes we sang duets together. I knew that opera before I went onstage, not only the songs. I wound up playing about 500 performances in the original and then the 1942 revival. I can tell you what every instrument played. Finally, in our last days of rehearsals in New York before heading up to Boston for previews, George took me to lunch. 'Come on,' he said, 'I'm going to buy you an orange juice.' Then, when we were seated, he made this announcement. I remember his words exactly because they thrilled me so. 'I want you to know, Miss Brown,' he said, 'that henceforth and forever after, George Gershwin's opera will be known as Porgy and Bess.[4]
Brown took part of opera history when she sang Bess for the world premiere of Porgy and Bess at the
Following the show's run on Broadway, a United States tour started on January 27, 1936, in
Later life and career: 1937–2009
After her appearance as the first Bess, Brown returned to Broadway in the 1937 musical revue
Brown toured Europe as a concert artist from 1942 to 1948. Brown said that she left the United States because of continued racial prejudice. As she told The New York Times in 1998, "We tough girls tough it out. I've lived a strange kind of life—half black, half white, half isolated, half in the spotlight. Many things that I wanted as a young person for my career were denied to me because of my color".[4] She also noted, regarding her light complexion, "Though there is no place on earth without prejudice. In fact, a French journalist wrote an article during one of my tours there asking: 'Why does she say she is colored? She's as white as any singer. It's just a trick to get people interested.' Can you imagine? Of course I was advertised as 'a Negro soprano.' What is 'a Negro soprano'?"[4] She also stated that she felt her singing was better received in Europe because she mainly sang works by European composers, such as Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler.[7]
In 1948, Brown settled in Oslo, Norway and became a Norwegian citizen after marrying skier Thorleif Schjelderup, a medalist at the 1948 Winter Olympics. He was her third husband, and like her previous marriages, their union ended in divorce. The marriage to Schjelderup was her third, his second. She had married for the first time at 19, eloping with a medical student, F. H. Howard, in New York and keeping the marriage secret from her father for two years; the union ended two years after that. Her second marriage in 1938 to C. C. Pettit[12][13] produced her daughter, Paula, who was born in 1939.[14] She had a second daughter, Vaar Inga, born in 1951 (the name means "springtime" in Norwegian), with Schjelderup, who also adopted Paula.[15] Paula Schjelderup rarely saw her father, because of her parents’ poor relationship. Instead, Schjelderup considered Brown’s husband, Thorleif Schjelderup, to be her father figure.[14]
Brown continued working as a professional musician into the 1950s, mostly working as a concert singer and recitalist. She did. however, appear in a few more operas, like
It is not clear if she maintained her United States citizenship as well.
Awards
In 1998, Anne Brown received the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America from the Peabody Institute, the institution that had denied her music education 70 years earlier. She was also made an honorary citizen of Baltimore in 1999. In 2000, she was awarded Norway's Council of Cultures Honorary Award.[7]
Sources
- The Music of Black Americans: A History. ISBN 0-393-97141-4
- Jablonski, Edward and Lawrence D. Stewart. The Gershwin Years. Garden City, New Jersey: Doubleday & Company, 1973. Second edition. ISBN 0-306-80739-4
- Anne Brown, "I Gave Up My Country For Love", Ebony, November 1953
- Anne Brown Interview, "Reminiscences of Black Musicians", American Music, Summer 1986
- Anne Brown, Sang fra frassen gren (memoir, aka Songs From a Frozen Branch), Aschehoug, Oslo, 1979
References
- ^ NTB/NRK (13 March 2009). "Anne Brown has died" (in Norwegian and English). NRK. Archived from the original on 16 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
- ^ Bob Mondello (25 August 2022). "Remembering Anne Brown, Gershwin's original Bess". National Public Radio. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
- ^ "Biography of Anne Brown at thehistorymakers.com". Archived from the original on 2008-06-07. Retrieved 2012-06-29.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Barry Singer (March 29, 1998). "THEATER; On Hearing Her Sing, Gershwin Made 'Porgy' 'Porgy and Bess'". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-03-25.
- ^ Biography of Anne Brown at afrovoices.com
- ^ 1920 United States Federal Census.
- ^ a b c d e f g Douglas Martin (March 16, 2009). "Anne Brown, Soprano Who Was Gershwin's Bess, Is Dead at 96". New York Times. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
- ^ "Obituaries: Actors Dom DeLuise and Beatrice Arthur; mezzo Margreta Elkins; soprano Anne Brown, Gershwin's original Bess; composer Lukas Foss dies at 86". Opera News. Vol. 74, no. 1. July 2009. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
- ^ Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia" (Carlson Publishing, 1993).
- ^ Jablonski & Stewart, pp. 227–229.
- ^ Porgy and Bess, the Library of Congress American Memory project, Today in History: September 2.
- ^ The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147
- ^ New York City Department of Records and Information Services;New York City, NY Marriage Licenses.
- ^ a b "Anne Brown". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
- ^ McLellan, Joseph (January 12, 1994). "THE BESS YEARS OF HER LIFE". The Washington Post.
- ^ Biography of Karin Krog at karinkrog.no
- JSTOR 3051981. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
External links
- Anne Brown at the Internet Broadway Database
- Anne Brown at IMDb
- Anne Brown – A Spotlight on the Soprano who Debuted Gershwin’s Bess from the Schubert Club (includes clips of her performances)