Opera, Black & Brown Composers

Opera has an outstanding history of at least 400 years in Italy during the Renaissance. The storytelling, verse surround it, and drama as the foundation of it is organized sound.However, the first full opera that is known was Daphne by Jacopo Corsi and Jacopo Peri and libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini in the latter part of the 1500s.  It was performed in a home for only the elite and learned community members.While Europe was continuing its cultural revolution with opera and other related art forms, the United States was struggling with one of the most devastating forms of bigotry against African people and people of color.In the United States, Flora was among the first opera. The opera was premiered in Charleston, South Carolina in someone’s yard in a makeshift theater in 1735.  Of course, William Grant Still. Still was the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States as well as the first to have his first symphony played by a progressive symphony orchestra. Also, one of Still’s operas was performed by the principal opera company and viewed on national television. Opera: Black/Brown Composers brings to light compositions by the Africans and the African in the diaspora that is rarely performed or mentioned in the world of music and theatre. This book is an attempt to make it loud and clear that operas by the underrepresented community are available and ready to be presented in opera houses globally.The renowned composer, Dorothy Rudd Moore, once said, 'It seemed that all composers must be 'male, white, and dead.' Operas by Black and Brown composers remain on the outskirts of classical music and exposure is vital. Let us not allow the work of these creative women and men to be tucked away in an archive of libraries, museums gathering cobwebs. Their work should be performed, studied, and displayed with dignity, joy, and pride.