Thursday, February 20, 2020
Anna Netrebko, Aida, Opera, and Race
The Mary Sue: Anna Netrebko is one of the most celebrated and famous dramatic sopranos in the world. She’s performed in opera houses the world over and it was announced last week that she will be part of a new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at The Metropolitan Opera. The character of Aida is an Ethiopian Princess made a slave in Egypt. Anna Netrebko is white.
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I’m not very familiar with opera so I had no idea that opera has so many problems with representation. My own experience can testify to this lack of diversity in opera because when I saw The Light in the Piazza a few weeks ago, I was so shocked and overly excited that the male lead, Fabrizio Naccarelli, was played by an Asian guy. The article brings up a very good point about the historic side of plays and operas. Many iconic pieces were written in such different times that a tradition of casting people of not the right race, gender, and age is formed. I feel like theater has made a lot more progression with representation compared to opera because we are seeing a lot of diversity on stage. This proves that the opera industry needs to make an effort to do the same. It’s not like people of color who can sing opera don’t exist.
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