The hidden voice of Luranah Aldridge

Available for over a year

The first black singer at Wagner's Bayreuth Festival was Grace Bumbry in the 1960s, but it could have been a different story. Celebrating Black History Month, and continuing Music Matters' series of Hidden Voices, Sara profiles the 1860s-born Aldridge sisters. Daughters of the 19th-century African-American Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge, Amanda was a singer, composer and teacher whose students included Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson, and Luranah, also a singer, narrowly missed out on a career-changing appearance at Wagner's festival in the 1890s. With the music writer Alex Ross and author Louise Hare.