Opera Can No Longer Ignore Its Race Problem

In late May, shortly after the killing of George Floyd, the mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges was invited by Los Angeles Opera to give a virtual recital.

“As much as I wanted to, I wasn’t in the right emotional space to present myself in that way,” she later recalled in an online discussion with the tenor Lawrence Brownlee. So she made a counteroffer: What if she assembled a group of fellow Black singers for a panel on race and inequality in opera?

The company said yes, and as Black Lives Matter protests raged across the country, Ms. Bridges moderated a nearly 90-minute conversation of striking scope and candor — by turns a group-therapy session and an improvised manifesto for the future of an art form that historically has elevated select singers of color while remaining overwhelmingly white offstage, from the rehearsal room to the board room.

Airing as a Facebook Live video, the panel has since been seen by more than 60,000 people. It should be required viewing for all leaders of American opera companies, and sent to the members of every board. Because if there ever was a moment for sweeping change, it’s now.

Read the article at The New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/arts/music/opera-race-representation.html