La Julia Rhea
| La Julia Elizabeth Rhea | |
|---|---|
La Julia Rhea performing Aida with the National Negro Opera Company in 1943.
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| Born |
March 16, 1898 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | July 5, 1992 (aged 94) Blue Island, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Opera singer |
| Years active | 1903-1949 |
| Spouse(s) | Henry J. Rhea |
| Children |
Henry J. Rhea, Jr. |
Henry J. Rhea, Jr.
La Julia Rhea (March 16, 1898 – July 5, 1992) was an African American operatic soprano, and a pioneering figure in the world of music in the United States.
Rhea was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and began singing publicly at the Hill Street Baptist Church of that city, where she was a member of the children's choir. In 1925 she went to Chicago and became a member of the R. Nathaniel Dett Club of Music and Allied Arts and attended and graduated from Chicago Musical College. Her professional debut was at Chicago's Kimball Hall in 1929, and she continued to make regular concert performances across the United States as she studied operatic roles in a period that lasted more than two decades.
After a 1927 performance of "O Don Fatale" from Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos for the Dett Club Scholarship Fund at Pittsburgh's Grace Presbyterian Church , the columnist Sylvester Russell had this to say, "As a vocalist... Madam Rhea is a genuine contralto of wonderful range and power, hardly excelled in richness and as the star of the occasion she occupies a place among the greatest human voices produced." In the early 1930s Rhea toured the country with Ethel Waters in the stage production of Rhapsody in Black, and was for a time the feature soloist of the Cecil Mack Choir.
At a time when black performers found it difficult to appeal to a wider audience, Rhea was presented by her teacher Romano Romani to the executive staff of the Metropolitan Opera, where in 1934 she became the "first person of her race to be granted an audition at the famous opera house". Although she was "highly praised for her artistic presentation,", the Met would wait until 1955 when Marian Anderson would become its first black star.
After her performance on May 13, 1935 of a song as the character Josephine in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, Rhea won over 6,000 votes from the audience and became the first black winner of an audition of the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, and toured with the group under the name Rea Parada.
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