NEW YORK (AP) — Helen L. Phillips, a soprano who broke the color barrier among singers at the Metropolitan Opera seven years before Marian Anderson's historic debut, has died at 86.
Phillips died of heart failure July 27 at New York's Isabella Geriatric Center, her nurse there said.
Although the opera company had no formal policy barring non-whites from appearing on its stage, Phillips became the first black chorister when she was hired as an extra for five performances of Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" from December 1947 through February 1948, said Met archivist Jeff McMillan. In 1933, a troupe of black dancers performed with the Met, he said.
In January 1955, Anderson became the first black singer to perform a major role at the Met, portraying Ulrica in Verdi's "A Masked Ball."