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Shirley Verrett (May 31, 1931 -- November 5, 2010) was an African-American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles i.e. soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s, particularly well known for singing the works of Verdi and Donizetti. Born into an African-American family of devout Seventh-day Adventists in New Orleans, Louisiana, Verrett was raised in Los Angeles, California. She sang in church and showed early musical abilities, but initially a singing career was frowned upon by her family. Later Verrett went on to study with Anna Fitziu and with Marion Szekely Freschl at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1961 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She appeared in the first concert ever televised from Lincoln Center in 1962, and also appeared that year in the first of the Leonard Bernstein Young People's Concerts ever televised from that venue, in what is now Avery Fisher Hall. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1968, with Carmen, and at La Scala in 1969 in Samson and Dalila. Verrett's mezzo roles included Cassandra and Didon (Berlioz's Les Troyens)-including the Met premiere, when she sang both roles in the same performance, Giuseppe Verdi's Ulrica, Amneris, Eboli, Azucena, Saint-Saëns' Dalila, Donizetti's Elisabetta I in "Maria Stuarda", Leonora in La favorita, Gluck's Orpheus, and Rossini's Neocles (L'assedio di Corinto) and Sinaide in Moïse. Many of these roles were recorded, either professionally or privately. Beginning in the late 1970s she began to tackle soprano roles, including Selika in L'Africaine, Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, Lady Macbeth Macbeth, Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites (Met1977), Tosca, Norma ( from Boston 1976 till Messina 1989), Aida (Boston 1980 and 1989), Desdemona (Otello) (1981), Leonore (Fidelio) (Met 1983), Iphigénie (1984--85), Alceste (1985), Médée (Cherubini) (1986)...

Lyrics & English Translation

Macbeth, you are an ambitious man.
You want to be great, but will you be wicked?
The way to the power is full of crimes,
And plague on him
That begins that way doubting and then goes back.

Come on! Hurry up!
I will fire your cold heart!
I will make you able
To complete the bold undertaking.
The witches promise you
The Scottish throne...
What are you waiting for?
Accept this gift! Ascend it and reign!

Now arise,
All you,
Ministers of hell,
Who incite,
Spur mortals to bloodshed!
You, rightfully...
Enshroud us with thick darkness!
Let the dagger not see the breast it strikes, etc.
Now arise all!


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