Mattiwilda Dobbs: a Study of Race, Class, and Gender in Opera
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University African-American Studies Theses Department of African-American Studies 12-11-2017 Mattiwilda Dobbs: A Study of Race, Class, and Gender in Opera Lindsey Baker Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/aas_theses Recommended Citation Baker, Lindsey, "Mattiwilda Dobbs: A Study of Race, Class, and Gender in Opera." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2017. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/aas_theses/47 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of African-American Studies at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in African-American Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MATTIWILDA DOBBS: A STUDY OF RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER IN OPERA by LINDSEY BAKER Under the Direction of Lia Bascomb, PhD ABSTRACT Throughout history, African-American women classical singers have been able to have successful careers. Mattiwilda Dobbs was a pioneer in opera. She was the first African-American woman to sing at La Scala Opera House in Milan. Dobbs was also the first African-American woman to sing a lead romantic role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Throughout her career, she was very vocal about race and class issues in the United States. This thesis explores her words to analyze and understand how race, class, and gender affected her life and career and to understand how she fits into the larger discussion of African-American women opera singers. INDEX WORDS: Mattiwilda Dobbs, African-American, classical music, opera, intersectionality MATTIWILDA DOBBS: A STUDY OF RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER IN OPERA by LINDSEY BAKER A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2017 Copyright by Lindsey Baker 2017 MATTIWILDA DOBBS: A STUDY OF RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER IN OPERA by LINDSEY BAKER Committee Chair: Lia Bascomb Committee: Maurice Hobson Marva Griffin Carter Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2017 iv v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to begin by thanking my mother for her support and encouragement. I would also like to thank Michele Jordan and her family for giving me access to personal papers and family photos of Mattiwilda Dobbs. I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my thesis committee chair, Dr. Lia Bascomb, for her guidance and support throughout this process. I would also like to thank the members on my committee, Dr. Maurice Hobson and Dr. Marva Griffin Carter, for their support as well. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ V 1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................... 1 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 4 2.1 Classical Music in 19th Century America......................................................... 4 2.2 Northern Black Communities ............................................................................ 5 2.3 The Influence of the Black Church on Black Women as Concert Singers .... 6 2.4 Professional Training for Black Women ........................................................... 7 2.5 Black Women Concert and Opera Singers ....................................................... 8 2.6 Other Musical Professions Held by Black Women .......................................... 9 2.7 Roles of Black Women from the 19th Century through the 20th Century .... 11 2.8 Critical Studies of African-Americans in classical music .............................. 12 2.9 Gaps in the Literature....................................................................................... 12 2.10 Significance ........................................................................................................ 13 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 14 3.1 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 16 4 THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY: AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSICIANS AND OPERA BEFORE DOBBS......................................................................................................... 17 4.1 Classical music in America ............................................................................... 17 4.2 Opera (History of the Metropolitan Opera) ................................................... 18 vii 4.3 African-Americans and African-American Music ......................................... 19 5 MATTIWILDA DOBBS BIOGRAPHY ................................................................. 27 6 INTERSECTIONALITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE OF MATTIWILDA DOBBS ........................................................... 42 6.1 Race and Its Effects on the Professional Life of Mattiwilda Dobbs ............. 45 6.2 Race and Its Effects on the Personal Life of Mattiwilda Dobbs ................... 56 6.3 Europe and Its Effects on Mattiwilda Dobbs’s Career and Personal Life .. 57 6.4 Class .................................................................................................................... 61 6.5 Gender in Opera ................................................................................................ 63 6.6 Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender ........................................................ 65 7 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 67 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 70 1 1 INTRODUCTION Mattiwilda Dobbs (1925-2015), an African-American coloratura soprano, gained international stardom beginning in the 1940s. Dobbs began her career in her hometown, Atlanta, Georgia. Being from the Southern United States, Dobbs understood racial division and the tensions among African-Americans and white people. These experiences shaped the way that Dobbs would approach her personal and professional life. Societal notions of race, class, and gender affected the career path of Black women musicians. The rise of the Black middle-class during this time also gave young Black women access to the learning and performance of classical music (Meier 1963, 139). This would prove to be true for Mattiwilda Dobbs as her father exposed her and her sisters to museums, plays, and operas. Classical music was more popular in the northern United States, so Dobbs traveled to New York for training. Shortly thereafter, she would travel to Europe to start her career. Throughout the history of African-Americans in classical music, singing was always viewed as a proper career choice for Black women. Being a pianist was also a suitable option for Black women. Dobbs would follow this tradition, studying both piano and voice. Local Black churches provided training for young Black women who wanted voice instruction. The Black church also gave African-American singers the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. First Congregational Church in Atlanta would become an early performance venue for Dobbs. Mattiwilda Dobbs was among the growing number of African-American sopranos in the United States during the 20th century. Dobbs grew up in the South during the first half of the 20th century when the South was segregated. Her father, John Wesley Dobbs, was a prominent leader in the African-American community. He was deemed the “unofficial mayor of Auburn Avenue,” a street that was home to many thriving African-American businesses (Bailey 2014). Her father’s 2 social status along with the segregated South would shape her personal and professional life. Her family was friends with the King family and Martin Luther King Jr. was her childhood friend. Being an opera singer, Dobbs was able to break down many barriers for African- Americans and being the first African-American to sing at La Scala in Italy was one of many firsts. Her career as an opera singer laid the groundwork for those to come after her. Stigmas in opera about African-Americans would also affect how Dobbs would prepare for roles, how she would look for a particular role, and how critics would ultimately view the complete performance of the opera. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how race, class, and gender affected Mattiwilda Dobbs’s career trajectory, how it affected her personal life, and how Dobbs fits into the larger narrative of African-American opera singers. To understand how race, class, and gender affected Mattiwilda Dobbs during her career, the author analyzed Dobbs’s description of events in her life, the experiences of other African- American opera singers with the theories of intersectionality, the sonic color line, and voice- object theory. The author begins with a brief history of the early 20th century to understand the landscape of opera, African-American life, and how African-American classical singers were navigating the world of opera. Then, the author gives a biography of Dobbs’s life and finally, using Dobbs’s words, the author examined race, class, and gender in her personal and professional life. For the analysis of race, the author looked at the roles given