Oja suggests that because Anderson wore a wig, stirred a pot inscribed with symbols of black magic, and wore a costume of “exotic otherness,” Anderson was demeaned. That’s the character. That’s the costume. She’s playing a role. That’s what operatic performers do. Oja also quotes writers from the African-American press who contrasted Anderson’s colorful regalia for the part with the dignity and beauty of her concert evening gowns, as if the stage character should incorporate those elements, preserve that identity—which is not what operatic performers do. They pretend to be someone else, to embody another identity. Finally, Oja notes that the part of Ulrica was in the 19th Century (and the 20th, for that matter) assumed by white singers in makeup (true, of course), and that this connected the role to racial stereotypes, to blackface and minstrelsy. I will address that in my concluding section. Overall, the burden of Oja’s presentation is tantamount to saying that Verdi and Somma had no right to create a Negro character—an impossible restriction on art. Efforts like hers are based on an elementary misunderstanding, willful or not, of theatrical illusion and truth. They also show an anachronistic disregard, strange for a music historian, for the world of the work’s creation. In this instance, the disregard is intended to turn a giant step toward equality into one of racial belittlement. I find it baffling. No, Marian Anderson’s Metropolitan Opera debut was not a racist event.^(I)

Opera 2: Verisimilitude and Makeup. We have come full circle on our excursion through The Moment and the arts. You will recall my saying that had Lawrence Tibbett essayed the part of Porgy, he would have been obliged to make himself up to look African-American, as indeed he did in the title role of Louis Gruenberg’s The Emperor Jones, one of his notable triumphs. And a little later, I said that in the kinds of theatre we are considering, verisimilitude is an aspect of quality. Makeup attempts to address one sort of verisimilitude, that of a character’s  appearance, including his or her ethnicity. Along with suitability of physique, which raises the ticklish subject of excessive weight, it is a “first impression” aspect of believability—first, but lasting. Beyond these, there are several other sorts of verisimilitude of importance in opera. There is a verisimilitude of physical behavior (or, if you wish, body language). This embraces the believability of moment-to-moment specifics of behavior, but more general, presentational ones as well, of the kinds we call “bearing” or “comportment.” These are meant to believably reflect the character’s social standing, occupation, manners, age, etc. They would include race-related habits of movement and signing, and what those convey within the social group being depicted.