Camilla Williams, 1919–2012

When soprano Camilla Williams came to New York City in 1946 to rehearse the title role in Madame Butterfly, she became the only major opera star to ever stay at the Harlem YWCA. De­­cades later she learned that the production’s white male lead had written to New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to protest having to share the stage of the New York City Opera with a black singer. Those infelicities did nothing to tarnish Williams’s barrier-breaking debut, which The New York Times’ critic of the day hailed as “an instant and pronounced success.”

Williams was born in Virginia as the daughter of a chauffeur and a laundress, said The Washington Post. “All of my people sing,” she later said. “We were poor, but God blessed us with music.” She began formal lessons with a Welsh-born teacher in her hometown, and after graduating from what is now Virginia State University, she won a scholarship to study voice in Philadelphia. Williams’s New York City Opera debut opened the door for other great African-American singers, such as Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price. “It is impossible to overstate how important that was for the music scene in New York, for African-American singers, and for American singers,” said F. Paul Driscoll, editor of Opera News.

After performing other leading roles at the New York City Opera, Williams reprised Madame Butterfly in 1954 with the Sadler’s Wells Opera in London and the Vienna State Opera, said the Associated Press. A lifelong advocate for civil rights, she sang the national anthem from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the 1963 March on Washington.

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