For Release: January 31st, 2000
Before there was Leontye Price or Jessye Norman--even before Marian Anderson--there was Sissieretta Jones, arguably the greatest black performer of 19th-century America and certainly the first great black diva. Dubbed the "Black Patti"--a dubiously flattering allusion to Italian-American prima donna Adelina Patti--the Virginia-born Jones, daughter of an ex-slave, performed before four U.S. presidents, was showered with jewels from heads of state and wealthy admirers and even drew so many fans at one concert in New Jersey that 1,000 had to be turned away.
Great Performances salutes Jones and numerous other African-American opera stars in "Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera," airing on KET Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 9:30/8:30 p.m. CT on KET. This revealing and inspiring documentary also looks back on the careers of Elizabeth Taylor-Greenfield, Paul Robeson, Camille Williams, Dorothy Maynor, Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Simon Estes, Robert McFerrin and Kathleen Battle.
For African Americans, the road to the white opera footlights has not been an easy one. Only 61 years ago, the great contralto Marian Anderson was barred from singing at Washington's Constitution Hall. "Aida's Brothers and Sisters" traces the long history of African Americans in opera.
Great Performances "Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera," produced by Pars Media and WNET/New York, is closed-captioned for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. Viewers can find out more about programming on KET by visiting the KET Web site at http://www.ket.org, a Kentucky.com affiliate.
Contact: Todd Piccirilli
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The legendary Leontyne Price, pictured here in 1963, lights up Great Performances "Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera."
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