Cue: Angela Brown
The classical art form of opera brings to mind numbingly long periods of time in which the audience is forced to endure high pitched screeching. The typical opera singer is pictured as a generously large white woman decked out in frills and all sorts of frivolous nonsense. Whose role as an opera singer stands out in this sea of similar sounding songbirds? Cue: Angela Brown.
Angela Brown, the talented opera singer, made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera this year. Before receiving the much coveted part of Aida in Verdi’s famous opera, Aida, Ms. Brown worked as an understudy for the part, at the Metropolitan Opera, a job that she had earned through the scholarship contests supported by the Metropolitan Opera; these contests were held nationwide. After persevering at her musical studies for years, in 1997 Ms. Brown finally became the National Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions Winner.
Though it may seem like her entire life had really been endless auditions and rehearsals leading up to the pinnacle: her role as Aida, Ms. Brown was actually quite confused and conflicted about her life’s work. After all, she had not known, until she was schooled in classical singing, what exactly her life’s work was. Growing up in Indiana, she had not been exposed to the music that now encompasses her life. As a stranger to operatic music, she was troubled by the thought of singing in such a different way. She was afraid of the reactions of her peers. However, her friends reassured her that while she could sing just as well as the rest of them in the church’s gospel, it was in opera singing that she excelled, and it is opera singing that the gifted Ms. Brown offers to vivid opera audiences today.