Opera Singers & Vocalists Posters, Prints & Photographs, “D...-E...-”
for the music, art, and social studies classrooms, home schoolers, theme decor for office or home.

Francesco D'Andrade
Emmy Destinn

Mattiwilda Dobbs
Emma Eames

Francesco D'Andrade
1856-1921; Portugal

Emmy Destinn
b. 2-26-1878; Prague
d. 1-28-1930; Czechoslovakia

Soprano Emmy Distinn, who was also a poet and novelist, enjoyed a successful career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

In 1910 she created the role of “Minnie” in the premiere of Puccini's La fanciulla del West, opposite Enrico Caruso, and under the direction of Arturo Toscanini.

At the beginning of World War I Destinn returned to Europe only to be interned at her chateau due to her links to patriotic Czech resistance.

Mattiwilda Dobbs
b. 7-11-1925; Atlanta, GA

Mattiwilda Dobbs, a coloratura soprano, was one of the first African-American singers to have an international opera career. She was also the first African-American member of the faculty at the University of Texas.

Emma Eames
b. 8-13-1865; China (raised in Maine)
d. 6-13-1952; NY?

Soprano Emma Eames sang major lyric and lyric-dramatic roles in opera and had an important career in New York, London and Paris during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century.

• Die Walkure

Simon Estes
b. 8-13-1938; Centerville, Iowa

Bass-baritone singer Simon Estes international opera career began in the Europe in the 1960s where racial prejudice was not as difficult of a problem. Beginning in 1981 he sang with the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.

Estes has established scholarships and teaches voice.

Madame Lillian Evanti
née Lillian Evans
b. 8-12-1890/91; Washington, DC
d. 12-6-1967; Washington, DC

Soprano Lillian Evanti was the first African-American to develop a professional career in grand opera. A graduate of Howard University she studied and performed in many of the principal opera houses in France and Italy between 1925 and 1928. In 1932 the Metropolitan Opera exclusionary racial policy made it impossible for her to perform there; she did give a recital at the Belasco Theater, the only prestige stage in Washington, D.C. to present performances by African-American artists to segregated audiences and two years later she gave a command performance at the White House. Evanti made several concert tours in Africa, where she was decorated for her cultural contributions in Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana. In 1957 she wrote the independence song for Ghana.

Evanti, her stage name, is a combination of Evans and Tibbs, the last name of her husband.