US soprano, offended by blackface, pulls out of Italy opera

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The U.S. singer posted a note on her angeljoyblue Instagram page saying she will be bowing out of “La Traviata” at Verona’s Arena this month because the theater recently mounted another Giuseppe Verdi opera, “Aida,” that had performers in blackface. The Arena, in a statement Friday, said it had “no reason nor intent whatsoever to offend and disturb anyone's sensibility.” For decades, U.S. civil rights organizations for decades have publicly condemned blackface — in which white performers blacken their faces — as dehumanizing Blacks by introducing and reinforcing racial stereotypes. She wrote that she couldn't “in good conscience associate myself with an institution which continues this practice.” The theater's statement said “Angel Blue knowingly committed herself to sing at the Arena” even though the “characteristics” of the 2002 Zeffirelli staging were "well known. “Common convictions have often been reached only after years of dialogue and mutual understanding.” The Arena statement stressed dialogue, “in effort to understand others' point of view, in respect of consciously assumed artistic obligations.” “Contraposition, judgments, labeling, lack of dialogue only feed the culture of contrasts, which we totally reject,” said the statement, appealing for cooperation “to avoid divisions.”