Divas in Black: A Storify Article

Ever since I was a child two things were always evident, I love to sing, and I love to be the boss.  It seems I spent the better part of my youth immersing my imagination with vision of fame and stardom, and above all total artistic freedom.  My dream was to graduate high school, and somehow become the next Whitney or Mariah.  The kind of vocalist with the chops to sing the phonebook with ease, yet still remain classy, glamorous and somehow ”down to earth.” In the two years after leaving high school, Whitney Houston was experiencing her personal problems, Mariah Carey her “breakdown, ”my favourite group Destiny’s Child after a very public and very nasty break-up, was evolving into a musical aesthetic that did not interest me.  My idols were falling.  And thank God for that.  Whatever the personal stories of these individuals, these ebb periods of their public lives made a profound impression on what it means to famous, and what it means to popular.  Also what it means to be an entertainer, and what it means to be an artist.  As I disposed of my childhood ideals, I began to replace them with what believe were healthier ones for me.  That in the words of the great Puccini aria “Vissi d’Arte” I wanted to live for art, and I wanted to live for love.  In order to do that, I had to discover the art to living my life. When I began singing, I started in Gospel, then R&B, then Jazz.  Upon hearing that Mariah Carey had been vocally trained by her opera singer mother, I thought classical training was the sure way to get to do that "whistle thing" she does.  On my way to emulation, I found myself conflicted with the traditional paradigms I had honoured all this time, because now they were holding me back.  I wanted new challenges, new experiences to breakthrough my personal barriers to unleash my  self, and then I discovered Opera. The beauty, the clarity, the rigor of it excited me.  The history engaged me.  Singing it released me.  I can and still sing all the genres I began with, but Opera has given me a new appreciation for the gift of the voice, and that I am called to share it with others.  I think this is the beauty of music and that is why I chose to do this Storify article on the great music of Verdi, Wagner and the amazing voices they helped define.  Hopefully, someday, mine will be defined as greatly as theirs. 

Black Women in Opera