American opera singer Grace Bumbry died at age 86 in a hospital in her chosen hometown Vienna.
Operawire reports that the singer’s adopted son, David Brewer, confirmed the news on Monday.
According to the platform, the mezzo-soprano singer died on Sunday in Vienna, Austria. She suffered an acute ischemic stroke from a fall in October 2022 and was hospitalised.
The performer was the first black woman to sing at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth in 1961 and became a trailblazer for other black women in opera.
Bumbry was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 4, 1937, into a musical family. After winning a singing contest run by a local radio station, she later trained as a singer, earning scholarships along the way.
In 1959, she gave her first concert in London, and a year later, she celebrated her opera debut in Paris.
Many more appearances followed, with her signature roles including Salome in Strauss’ eponymous work, as Lady Macbeth, and Princess Eboli in “Don Carlos.”
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