Clamma Dale

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Clamma Dale is an African-American operatic soprano. She is best known for portraying the role of Bess in the highly successful 1976 Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess. The show was transported from Houston to Broadway where Dale was awarded a Drama Desk Award and received a Tony Award nomination.^[1] Since then she has sung at numerous opera houses throughout the United States and in Europe. Highlights of her career include singing the roles of the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with the New York City Opera, performing as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic in the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Songfest, and creating several performances of Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts. She has made several White House appearances and spent several years working in various opera houses in Paris, where she sang Liu in Puccini's Turandot, Fata Morgana in The Love for Three Oranges, and appeared in a one-woman tour de force as the bloodthirsty title character in Erzsebet an opera by Charles Chaynes.^[2]

Dale has also given many recitals throughout her career including two recitals resulting from winning the Walter W. Naumburg voice competition. She has given recitals at Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall among other places.

Awards
Preceded by Donna McKechnie in A Chorus Line	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical 1976-1977 for Porgy and Bess	Succeeded by Nell Carter in Ain't Misbehavin'

[edit] Personal life

Dale married Terry Shirk in 1981. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1987.^[3]

[edit] Recordings

• Porgy and Bess with the Houston Grand Opera, 1990 RCA Victor.
• Virgil Thomson's Four Saints In Three Acts, 1992 Nonesuch.
• Voice Of Bernstein, 2005 Deutsche Grammophon.

[edit] References