/Music
Opera in the Harlem Renaissance
Event WebsiteAbout
For many of us, the Harlem Renaissance points our thoughts towards smoky nightclubs like The Cotton Club, iconic singers like Billie Holiday, and the jazz poetry of Langston Hughes. Beyond the most famous figures dominating that artistic Mecca, lie the stories of African American opera singers and the Black opera companies that today remain almost forgotten. Professor and soprano Melissa Givens will take us on a journey into that renaissance and shed light onto the stages remembered only in obscure articles of Black history.
SF/Arts Curator Insight
As part of its interactive lectures series, and one of three programs celebrating African-American Music Appreciation Month, the Opera presents soprano and Pomona College professor Melissa Givens, exploring the Harlem Renaissance in a program that focuses not on Duke Ellington or Langston Hughes but on the African-American opera singers and companies that flourished at the time and are now all but forgotten.
Jesse Hamlin
SF/Arts Curator
We have been thrilling audiences in San Francisco since 1923. We are known for commissioning numerous world premieres, training some of opera's greatest young artists and being one of the world’s leading opera companies.
We have been thrilling audiences in San Francisco since 1923. We are known for commissioning numerous world premieres, training some of opera's greatest young artists and being one of the world’s leading opera companies.