Music: Now One Is Speechless

From the time Contralto Marian Anderson first realized that she had a remarkable voice, she wanted to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. In those days, hiring a Negro artist was unthinkable at the Met. She went on the concert stage instead, and became one of the great recitalists of all time. But last week, fiftyish and famous as ever,* she sat down with the Met’s General Manager Rudolf Bing and signed up for a starring role this winter.

“I don’t see what all the excitement is about,” said Bing. “We’ve signed up fine singers before. I was sitting beside Miss Anderson at a reception last month, and I simply asked her if she would like to sing the role of the gypsy, Ulrica, in Verdi’s Masked Ball for us.” She had never seen the music, but would try it for range. Last week she went over it with Dimitri Mitropoulos, who will conduct the work, and “everything went beautifully.”

Three years ago, Manager Bing had hired Dancer Janet Collins to be his prima ballerina, making her the first Negro artist on the Met roster in any capacity. He expects to employ other Negro singers if they “are right for the roles.” Said Marian Anderson, as usual referring to herself with the modest impersonal pronoun: “Now one is speechless.” Would her place in Met history be comparable to Jackie Robinson’s in baseball? “One hopes so,” she said. “It would be a matter of pride.”

* In spite of an operation five years ago for removal of a cyst on her esophagus that endangered her voice. Today Contralto Anderson can almost equal the vocal glory of her best years.