Gloria Davy

Gloria Davy ( born March 29, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, according to others, but probably unsafe sources 1932 or 1933; † November 28, 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland ) was an African American opera singer.

Life

The soprano began after studying at the Juilliard School of Music in her career in 1954 with the musical Porgy and Bess, with whom she also went on an international tour. After her exit, which took place in order not artistic set, she sang as a member of an Italian opera company, the main role in the performance of Aida at the Opera of Nice.

In February 1958, she was the first black artist who sang the title role in Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera. During a three- year commitment, she was there to see then in the opera I Pagliacci, The Magic Flute and Il trovatore. Here she sang the roles of Nedda, Pamina, and Leonora.

This was followed in parallel with their commitment Opera guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera in 1959 ( as Aida under Herbert von Karajan ), and a year later in the Covent Garden Opera (also called Aida ). From 1957 to 1961 there was a focal point of her musical performances in Italy, when she performed at La Scala in Milan, Bologna, Naples, Palermo and Parma. At La Scala, she sang the title role in Madama Butterfly, Nedda, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Jenny in Kurt Weill's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Between 1961 and 1962 she performed Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre Royal de la also Monnaie in Brussels

In Germany, she was seen in the 1960s. With the Berlin Festival in 1961, she was the center of the Aida - staging of Wieland Wagner. In the city they then remained in the following two years in which she was engaged at the Deutsche Oper. Guest performances were also at the Hamburg State Opera.

A long-playing record with her in the role of Bess in 1968 was recorded with William Pearson as Porgy. On June 21, 1969 Davy, who lived in Geneva with her ​​German husband Hermann Penningsfeld mid 1960s came, also a guest in the ARD Saturday night show One will win.

From later divorced comes their son Jean -Marc Penningsfeld.