Remembering: Soprano Shirley Verrett

Shirley Verrett, Soprano opera singer and recitalist, well known during the 1960s and 1970s sadly died last Friday, aged 79..

A great recording artist appearing of stage and film she was lauded by international audiences and the media.

Shirley Verrett was born in the racially segregated deep-south, New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 31 1931, one of six children. She started her musical career at the age of five when she sang her first solo – Jesus Loves Me – in church.

She rebelled against religious labels and on a tour of the South, in 1960, she refused to sing to segregated audiences.  

Among her performances were Bolshoi in Moscow in 1963; City Opera New York in 1964; La Scala Milan in 1966 and Carmen at the Met in 1968.

Her European debut was singing Carmen at Spoleto, in Italy. She prerormed in Verdi's Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall in 1965, and Covent Garden in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschero.  As Gluck's Orfeo at the Royal Opera in 1972 and held a recital at the Festival Hall in the 1980s.

She was subject to racist comments from critics who disapproved of her short, Afro-style hair in Aida In the 1980s.