Most of the obituaries that appeared last week following the death, at 96, of the beloved American contralto Marian Anderson stressed her achievement as a key symbol in the struggle for racial equality, so much so that one may have forgotten what an accomplished singer she was.
Music was the center of what one biographer called a life of "artistic compulsion." When Anderson sang, eyes closed, with that inner serenity that was uniquely hers, music flowed from her not simply with great communicative power, but great communicative necessity. Her deep emotional commitment, in most of what she sang, would have moved audiences even if the vocal instrument had not been a marvel.
Less often noted were the variety of color in the voice, the deep, rich port of the lower notes, the quick, bright vibrato in the middle range, the seemingly boundless top that suggested the great Verdi mezzo-soprano roles she might have sung if the doors hadn't been closed to her earlier in her career.
If her contralto was not notably even throughout its range, it was large and striking, and she could adapt it to everything from Ger man lieder to the spirituals that became her hallmark. This was always singing with a "face" behind it.
For several generations of African-American singers, Anderson showed the way. She made one of the most publicized Met debuts in history in 1955 when Rudolf Bing offered her Ulrica in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" when she was 57 and past her vocal prime.
This was relatively risk-free casting, since the gypsy fortune-teller's part involved no love interest and did not require a fresh or youthful voice. But Anderson became the first black singer to perform at the Met, and that opened an historically crucial door.
Largely because of Anderson's pioneering example, and her direct encouragement, such black artists as Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle and Simon Estes have had the opportunity to sing the same leading operatic roles that white singers assume, and no audience today considers this inappropriate. After Anderson sang at the Met, opera became color-blind.
The result has been that the number of role models for younger black singers has multiplied exponentially; when Price and Bumbry were studying voice, there really was only Anderson. Her quiet tenacity in the face of nonacceptance became an inspiration for all young artists, whatever their color.
If art truly is a mirror of society, we have come a healthy distance in the 54 years that have elapsed since Anderson sang for 75,000 listeners at the Lincoln Memorial after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall. Her dignity and sincerity moved all Americans closer to the light.
Bye bye Barenboim: There's more on Lyric Opera's striking the much-anticipated Patrice Chereau-Daniel Barenboim production of Berg's "Wozzeck" from next season's schedule. (Another new production by director David Alden and designer Charles Edwards has been substituted, conductor to be announced; it opens Jan. 24, 1994.)
Lyric general director Ardis Krainik says the cost of adapting the production, introduced last June at Paris' Chatelet Theatre, would be "at least $500,000 or more."
With the company having to raise nearly $10 million to meet its 1993 budget of $25.6 million, not to mention raising its share of the $100 million community business leaders have pledged to the opera and Chicago Symphony for their planned building renovation and expansion projects, Krainik could not risk running up any red ink.
Yet to be explained is why Lyric could not anticipate the production cost when it announced the Chereau-Barenboim "Wozzeck" in January 1992. In the meantime, Lyric expects another sellout season for 1993-94, and a number of patrons who bought season tickets did so on the assumption that Chereau and Barenboim would be part of it. In a statement, Barenboim said he hopes he and Krainik can find another project that will bring him to the Lyric.
Ad lib: Philanthropist Eloise Wright Martin of Kenilworth will receive the 1993 Bravo Award at Rosary College's annual trustee benefit concert, 3 p.m. Sunday in the River Forest college's Lund Auditorium.