The American soprano Angel Blue has landed one of classical music's very top gigs this year: performing at 2024's Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London. And her career has seen many a high already, not all of them on the opera stage...
Who is Angel Blue?
Angel Blue is a 38-year-old American soprano and former beauty queen, acclaimed for her vocal luminosity, who successfully treads the line between classical music and other genres.
Where is Angel Blue from?
She grew up in Apple Valley, California, just north of the San Gabriel mountains.
Did she come from a musical family?
Yes. Her late father, Sylvester, was a classically-trained gospel singer and pastor while her mother, Sylvia, was an educator and keyboard player. Blue and her four siblings could all sing and play instruments (Blue also plays the piano and bass), and would often accompany their father in a trailer on his travels, preaching and singing in churches across the country.
When did she realise she wanted to be a professional singer?
According to family legend, her father realised it before she did, remarking that, even as a baby, she had a big upper chest and a good pair of lungs. 'This is the next Leontyne Price,' he reportedly said. But her journey into the world of performing really began when she was accepted by the L.A County High School for the Arts. She later went on to gain a Music degree at the University of Redlands, California, following this up with a masters in in Music from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Was Angel Blue a beauty queen?
The future singer took part in beauty pageants to fund her singing studies at UCLA. She won the titles of Miss Apple Valley, Miss Hollywood and Miss Southern California, but now looks back on that time with mixed feelings, as she told The Times: 'I’m 5ft 11 and a half, and I would be competing against a woman who’s 5ft 2 with a petite frame. I did have people telling me "you’re overweight"..it taught me that I don't need to compare myself to other people.'
What repertoire does she sing?
Angel Blue has sung many major operatic roles including Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata, and Musetta in Puccini's La bohème. She has also sung Bess in a Grammy Award-winning production of George Gershwin's much-loved opera Porgy and Bess, as well as Micaela in Carmen, the wildly popular Spanish-set opera by Georges Bizet.
Other roles include Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor), and the Contessa Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which we revealed to be the greatest opera of all time. She has also played Dido in Henry Purcell's (Dido and Aeneas). In 2019, meanwhile, she became the first black woman ever to sing the fully staged role of Mimi (from La bohème) at Milan's Teatro alla Scala. But she's equally happy to venture beyond classical music and embrace genres including jazz, spirituals and Spanish zarzuelas.
What happened between Angel Blue and Anna Netrebko?
In the summer of 2022, Angel Blue was scheduled to make her debut with the Italian opera company Arena di Verona, in Verdi's La traviata. However, the soprano withdrew from that commitment in protest to another Arena di Verona production. That was the production of Verdi's Aida, for which the Russian-Austrian soprano Anna Netrebko used Blackface makeup in the title role.
Netrebko had posted images of herself in the makeup on her Instagram page. The images drew opposition from various members of the opera and classical music community, including mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. On Facebook, Angel Blue voiced her opposition to the ‘deeply misguided practice based on archaic theatrical traditions which have no place in modern society’.
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What is Angel Blue singing at the Last Night of the Proms?
For the 2024 Last Night, she will be performing the famous Puccini aria 'O mio babbino caro' as well as the aria ‘Al pensar en el dueño de mis amores’ from the opera Las hijas del Zebedeo by the Spanish composer Ruperto Chapí. She'll also lead the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra in Last Night stalwarts such as Jerusalem, the National Anthem, and Auld Lang Syne.
Photo: Sonya Garza
