Caterina Jarboro

Caterina Jarboro

Caterina Jarboro (1903–1986) was an African-American opera singer.

Life and work

Jarboro was born in 1903 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Jarboro studied in North Carolina and then in New York. She sang in the theater musical Shuffle Along and in James P. Johnson's Running Wild. In 1930, she debuted in opera with Verdi's Aida at the Puccini Theatre in Milan, Italy.

In 1933, twenty-two full years before Marian Anderson's début at the Metropolitan Opera, impresario Alfredo Salmaggi hired Jarboro to sing with his opera company at the New York Hippodrome. She was presented in the role of Seleka in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine. She was thus the first black opera singer ever to sing on an opera stage in America. This milestone earned Salmaggi special recognition from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Many other opera appearances throughout Europe and the United States followed.

Jarboro died in August 1986 at the age of 83.

Further reading

Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History. W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd edition. ISBN 0-393-97141-4