Word: mattiwilda
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Atlanta's Spelman College harmonized with an apt duet of famous singers as it granted honorary fine arts degrees. One was to Opera Soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs, 53, a Spelman alumna who polished her coloratura with a Marian Anderson Scholarship. The other, fittingly, was awarded the legendary Anderson herself, now 77. Hailed as "the most famous and best loved contralto of our time," Anderson received a standing ovation for her long, path-marking career. Responded she in a brief, upbeat acceptance: "It's all waiting for you out there, and you can make your lives what you want them...
...career studded with firsts-she was the first Negro principal to sing at La Scala and the first Negro romantic lead at the Metropolitan Opera-dazzling Coloratura Mattiwilda Dobbs, 36, achieved another breakthrough: a desegregated concert in the Municipal Auditorium of her native Atlanta, Ga. Winning exultant plaudits from an audience of 3,000 with a repertory ranging from Brahms lieder to spirituals, the former First Congregational Church soloist beamingly accepted a basket of roses from Atlanta's Mayor Ivan Allen, who told her: "You have brought honor to Atlanta.'' Responded Mattiwilda: "My heart is so full...
...role there at the time. The first: Marian Anderson, who in 1955 long past her vocal prime-appeared in the minor part of the fortune teller Ulrica in Verdi's A Masked Ball. Following Anderson, three Negroes have had lead roles at the Met: Baritone Robert McFerrin, Sopranos Mattiwilda Dobbs and Gloria Davy...
...Married. Mattiwilda Dobbs, 32, coloratura soprano of the Metropolitan Opera, second Negro woman (the first Marian Anderson) to sing at the Met; and Bengt Janzon, 44, public-relations director of the Royal Opera, Stockholm; both for the second time; in Manhattan...
...Mattiwilda (a contraction of the names of her maternal grandmother) made her U.S. stage debut with the San Francisco Opera a year ago, was back in Covent Garden last February when word came that the Met wanted her to sing four Gildas this season. She was asked to keep it a secret until the opera made the announcement, so her only celebration was to sing "especially well that night...