Soprano Says She'll Boycott Theater Over Blackface

Angel Blue says she won't perform in an opera in Italy this month because blackface was used in the staging of a different work this summer on the same stage. The US soprano posted a note on her angeljoyblue Instagram page saying she will be bowing out of La Traviata at Verona's Arena this month because the theater recently mounted another Giuseppe Verdi opera, Aida, that had performers in blackface. She blasted such use of "archaic" theatrical practices as "offensive, humiliating, and outright racist," the AP reports. Angel Blue, however, was still listed Saturday on the Arena's website as singing the role of Violetta in La Traviata on July 22 and 30.

The theater said it was hoping that the singer, who is Black, would accept an invitation to meet with Arena officials in a "dialogue" over the issue. The Arena, in a statement Friday, said it had "no reason nor intent whatsoever to offend and disturb anyone's sensibility." The performances of Aida this summer were based on a 2002 staging of the opera classic by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019. That staging uses blackface. For decades, US civil rights organizations have publicly condemned blackface—in which white performers blacken their faces—as dehumanizing Black people by introducing and reinforcing racial stereotypes.

The singer's post said: "The use of blackface under any circumstances, artistic or otherwise, is a deeply misguided practice based on archaic theatrical traditions which have no place in modern society. It is offensive, humiliating and outright racist." She wrote that she couldn't "in good conscience associate myself with an institution which continues this practice." The theater's statement pushed back, saying, "Angel Blue knowingly committed herself to sing at the Arena" even though the "characteristics" of the 2002 Zeffirelli staging were "well known." The theater stressed its hope that her protest would ultimately improve understanding between cultures as well as educate Italian audiences.

(More blackface stories.)