Black Diva Of The Thirties

Author : David E. Weaver
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2009-11-12
Category : Music
ISBN : 9781628467536

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Black Diva of the Thirties by David E. Weaver Pdf

While undergoing routine surgery to remove a benign tumor, Ruby Elzy died. She was only thirty-five. Had she lived, she would have been one of the first black artists to appear in grand opera. Although now in the shadows, she was a shining star in her day. She entertained Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. She was Paul Robeson's leading lady in the movie version of The Emperor Jones. She co-starred in Birth of the Blues opposite Bing Crosby and Mary Martin. She sang at Harlem's Apollo Theater and in the Hollywood Bowl. Her remarkable soprano voice was known to millions over the radio. She was personally chosen by George Gershwin to create one of the leading roles in his masterpiece, that of Serena in the original production of Porgy and Bess. Her signature song was the vocally demanding "My Man's Gone Now." From obscurity she had risen to great heights. Ruby Pearl Elzy (1908-1943) was born in abject poverty in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Her father abandoned the family when she was five, leaving her mother, a strong, devout woman, to raise four small children. Ruby first sang publicly at the age of four and even in childhood dreamed of a career on the stage. Good fortune struck when a visiting professor, overwhelmed upon hearing her beautiful voice at Rust College in Mississippi, arranged for her to study music at Ohio State University. Later, on a Rosenwald Fellowship, she enrolled at the Juilliard School in New York City. After more than 800 performances in Porgy and Bess, she set her sights on a huge goal, to sing in grand opera. She was at the peak of her form. While she was preparing for her debut in the title role of Verdi's Aida, tragedy struck. During her brief career, Ruby Elzy was in the top tier of American sopranos and a precursor who paved a way for Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and other black divas of the operatic stage. This biography acknowledges her exceptional talent, recognizes her contribution to American music, and tells her tragic yet inspiring story.

Author : Yaël Tamar Lewin,Janet Collins
Publisher : Wesleyan University Press
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2011-09-13
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780819571151

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Night's Dancer by Yaël Tamar Lewin,Janet Collins Pdf

Winner of the The Marfield Prize / National Award for Arts Writing (2011) Dancer Janet Collins, born in New Orleans in 1917 and raised in Los Angeles, soared high over the color line as the first African-American prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera. Night’s Dancer chronicles the life of this extraordinary and elusive woman, who became a unique concert dance soloist as well as a black trailblazer in the white world of classical ballet. During her career, Collins endured an era in which racial bias prevailed, and subsequently prevented her from appearing in the South. Nonetheless, her brilliant performances transformed the way black dancers were viewed in ballet. The book begins with an unfinished memoir written by Collins in which she gives a captivating account of her childhood and young adult years, including her rejection by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Dance scholar Yaël Tamar Lewin then picks up the thread of Collins’s story. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with Collins and her family, friends, and colleagues to explore Collins’s development as a dancer, choreographer, and painter, Lewin gives us a profoundly moving portrait of an artist of indomitable spirit. Ebook Edition Note: The John Martin review on pages 122-123 has been redacted.

Author : Robert W. Schneider,Shannon Agnew
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 287 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2022-03-30
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781000555189

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Fifty Key Stage Musicals by Robert W. Schneider,Shannon Agnew Pdf

This volume in the Routledge Key Guides series provides a round-up of the fifty musicals whose creations were seminal in altering the landscape of musical theater discourse in the English-speaking world. Each entry summarises a show, including a full synopsis, discussion of the creators' process, show's critical reception, and its impact on the landscape of musical theater. This is the ideal primer for students of musical theater – its performance, history, and place in the modern theatrical world – as well as fans and lovers of musicals.

Author : Mark Hugh Malone
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2023-04-17
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781496844835

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William Levi Dawson by Mark Hugh Malone Pdf

William Levi Dawson (1899–1990) overcame adversity and Jim Crow racism to become a nationally recognized composer, choral arranger, conductor, and professor of music. In William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator, Mark Hugh Malone tells the fascinating tale of Dawson’s early life, quest for education, rise to success at the Tuskegee Institute, achievement of national notoriety as a composer, and retirement years spent conducting choirs throughout the US and world. From his days as a student at Tuskegee in the final years of Booker T. Washington’s presidency, Dawson continually pursued education in music, despite racial barriers to college admission. Returning to Tuskegee later in life, he became director of the School of Music. Under his direction, the Tuskegee Choir achieved national recognition by singing at Radio City Music Hall, presenting concerts for Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and performing on nationwide radio and television broadcasts. Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, only the second extended musical work to be written by an African American, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in both Philadelphia and New York City. Dawson’s arrangements of spirituals, the original folk music of African Americans enslaved in America during the antebellum period, quickly became highly sought-after choral works. This biographical account of Dawson's life is narrated with a generous sprinkling of his personal memories and photographs.

Author : Martha H. Swain,Elizabeth Anne Payne,Marjorie Julian Spruill
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Page : 382 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2010-02-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780820333939

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Mississippi Women by Martha H. Swain,Elizabeth Anne Payne,Marjorie Julian Spruill Pdf

Some of the women are well known, others were prominent in their time but have since faded into obscurity, and a few have never received the attention they deserve."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Gary B. Agee
Publisher : University of Arkansas Press
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2011-12-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781610754910

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A Cry for Justice by Gary B. Agee Pdf

Daniel A. Rudd, born a slave in Bardstown, Kentucky, grew up to achieve much in the years following the Civil War. His Catholic faith, passion for activism, and talent for writing led him to increasingly influential positions in many places. One of his important early accomplishments was the publication of the American Catholic Tribune, which Rudd referred to as "the only Catholic journal owned and published by colored men." At its zenith, the Tribune, run out of Detroit and Cincinnati, where Rudd lived, had ten thousand subscribers, making it one of the most successful black newspapers in the country. Rudd was also active in the leadership of the Afro-American Press Association, and he was a founding member of the Catholic Press Association. By 1889, Rudd was one of the nation's best-known black Catholics. His work was endorsed by a number of high-ranking church officials in Europe as well as in the United States, and he was one of the founders of the Lay Catholic Congress movement. Later, his travels took him to Bolivar County, Mississippi, and eventually on to Forrest City, Arkansas, where he worked for the well-known black farmer and businessperson, Scott Bond, and eventually co-wrote Bond's biography.

Author : Arnett Howard,James Loeffler,Candice Watkins
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : History
ISBN : 0738561533

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Columbus by Arnett Howard,James Loeffler,Candice Watkins Pdf

Columbus has long been known for its musicians. Unlike New York, San Francisco, Kansas City, Nashville, or even Cincinnati, however, it has never had a definable "scene." Still, some truly remarkable music has been made in this musical crossroads by the many outstanding musicians who have called it home. Since 1900, Columbus has grown from the 28th- to the 15th-largest city in the United States. During this period, it has developed into a musically vibrant community that has nurtured the talents of such artists as Elsie Janis, Ted Lewis, Nancy Wilson, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dwight Yoakam, Bow Wow, and Rascal Flatts. But, in many instances, those who chose to remain at home were as good and, perhaps, even better.

Author : Ted Ownby,Charles Reagan Wilson,Ann J. Abadie,Odie Lindsey,James G. Thomas Jr.
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 2548 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2017-05-25
Category : Reference
ISBN : 9781496811578

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The Mississippi Encyclopedia by Ted Ownby,Charles Reagan Wilson,Ann J. Abadie,Odie Lindsey,James G. Thomas Jr. Pdf

Recipient of the 2018 Special Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and Recipient of a 2018 Heritage Award for Education from the Mississippi Heritage Trust The perfect book for every Mississippian who cares about the state, this is a mammoth collaboration in which thirty subject editors suggested topics, over seven hundred scholars wrote entries, and countless individuals made suggestions. The volume will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about Mississippi and the people who call it home. The book will be especially helpful to students, teachers, and scholars researching, writing about, or otherwise discovering the state, past and present. The volume contains entries on every county, every governor, and numerous musicians, writers, artists, and activists. Each entry provides an authoritative but accessible introduction to the topic discussed. The Mississippi Encyclopedia also features long essays on agriculture, archaeology, the civil rights movement, the Civil War, drama, education, the environment, ethnicity, fiction, folklife, foodways, geography, industry and industrial workers, law, medicine, music, myths and representations, Native Americans, nonfiction, poetry, politics and government, the press, religion, social and economic history, sports, and visual art. It includes solid, clear information in a single volume, offering with clarity and scholarship a breadth of topics unavailable anywhere else. This book also includes many surprises readers can only find by browsing.

Author : Victoria Etnier Villamil
Publisher : UPNE
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1555536352

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From Johnson's Kids to Lemonade Opera by Victoria Etnier Villamil Pdf

American baritone Lawrence Tibbett created an overnight sensation at the Metropolitan Opera in 1925 when the audience stopped the performance of Falstaff to honor their compatriot for his exceptional talent. Tibbett's now legendary curtain call foreshadowed a startling new era for classically trained native singers who rarely received the public recognition or respect given to their European colleagues. In this absorbing work, Victoria Etnier Villamil chronicles the extraordinary time from 1935 to 1950 when American artists, who felt intensely inferior to foreign performers, journeyed from being unappreciated in their own country to standing without apology on stages at home and abroad. Drawing on exhaustive primary research and extensive interviews, Villamil tells the remarkable story of a generation of American opera singers whose profession, image, and art were forever altered by the upheavals of World War II, as well as sweeping cultural and technological changes. The author's in-depth look at these breakthrough years explores such defining factors as Edward Johnson's drive to "Americanize the Met" in his first seasons as general manager, the impact of the microphone on singers and singing styles, and the importance of radio and motion pictures in introducing classical music voices to wider audiences. Villamil also considers how travel restrictions imposed on European artists during the war unlocked opportunities for American artists, and the role of political and Jewish refugees in enriching music education and training in this country. In addition, the author discusses thoroughly the founding of the New York City Opera, the rise of regional and smaller opera companies, including the enterprising and popular Lemonade Opera, and advancements for African American classical singers. Brimming with entertaining anecdotes and colorful figures, both famous and little remembered, the fascinating book concludes with an examination of this crucial period's legacy for the American classical music scene in the 1950s and beyond. From Johnson's Kids to Lemonade Opera contains an invaluable appendix that provides biographical sketches of the over 250 opera and radio singers, as well as art song specialists, featured in this illuminating study.

Author : Derek Sculthorpe
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2017-01-25
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781476626581

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Brian Donlevy, the Good Bad Guy by Derek Sculthorpe Pdf

Brian Donlevy (1901–1972) was an underrated film actor with surprising range and a little-heralded gift for comedy. Often typecast as a villain, he played the definitive bad guy in such films as Destry Rides Again, Union Pacific and Beau Geste (all in 1939). He showed his versatility in the title role of Preston Sturges’ political satire The Great McGinty (1940) and impressed both New York critics and the Soviet government as the cooly authoritative Major Caton in Wake Island (1942). Donlevy was fondly remembered as globe-trotting U.S. Special Agent Steve Mitchell in the television series Dangerous Assignment (1952) and as Professor Quatermass in two acclaimed science fiction films. This first ever biography of Donlevy covers his colorful early life as a boy soldier, his years playing comedy roles on Broadway and his long career in Hollywood.

Author : Melissa U. D. Goldsmith,Paige A. Willson,Anthony J. Fonseca
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 486 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2016-10-07
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781442269873

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The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film by Melissa U. D. Goldsmith,Paige A. Willson,Anthony J. Fonseca Pdf

Musicians, both fictional and real, have long been subjects of cinema. From biopics of composers Beethoven and Mozart to the rise (and often fall) of imaginary bands in The Commitments and Almost Famous, music of all types has inspired hundreds of films. The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film features the most significant productions from around the world, including straightforward biographies, rockumentaries, and even the occasional mockumentary. The wide-ranging scope of this volume allows for the inclusion of films about fictional singers and bands, with emphasis on a variety of themes: songwriter–band relationships, the rise and fall of a career, music saving the day, the promoter’s point of view, band competitions, the traveling band, and rock-based absurdity. Among the films discussed in this book are Amadeus, The Blues Brothers, The Buddy Holly Story, The Commitments, Dreamgirls, The Glenn Miller Story, A Hard Day’s Night, I’m Not There, Jailhouse Rock, A Mighty Wind, Ray, ’Round Midnight, The Runaways, School of Rock, That Thing You Do!, and Walk the Line. With entries that span the decades and highlight a variety of music genres, The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film is a valuable resource for moviegoers and music lovers alike, as well as scholars of both film and music.

Author : Henry Louis Gates (Jr.),Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 710 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : African Americans
ISBN : UOM:39015073863253

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The African American National Biography: Dihigo-Gwynn by Henry Louis Gates (Jr.),Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Pdf

An 8-volume reference set containing over 4,000 entries written by distinguished scholars, 'The African American National Biography' is the most significant and expansive compilation of black lives in print today.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 764 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Academic libraries
ISBN : UOM:39015063375292

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Choice by Anonim Pdf

Author : Scarlett Harris
Publisher : Fayetteville Mafia Press
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03-02
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781949024197

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A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler by Scarlett Harris Pdf

Lifelong wrestling fan and critic Scarlett Harris uses big ideas, such as #MeToo, the commodification of feminism, and how we tell women's stories to chart the rise and fall and rise of women's wrestling.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : American literature
ISBN : UOM:39015078273193

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Calyx by Anonim Pdf