Grace Bumbry, a mezzo-soprano who died on May 7, 2023 in Vienna, Austria, had an estimated net worth of $2 million at the time of her death. Her estimated net worth stems from her years as an opera singer.
Born on January 4, 1937, Bumbry rose to international prominence when Wieland Wagner (Richard Wagner’s grandson) cast her as Venus in Tannhäuser at Bayreuth in 1961, at the age of 24, making her the first black vocalist to debut there, earning her the moniker “Black Venus.”
As Princess Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo, she made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in 1963, her La Scala debut in 1964, and her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1965.
Bumbry made her debut as a soprano in 1964, performing Verdi’s Lady Macbeth at the Vienna State Opera.
She returned to the Vienna State Opera as the Countess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades in 2013, following a long break from the stage in Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris in 2010.
Bumbry, like her compatriot and contemporary Shirley Verrett, was one of the more successful singers who made the move from mezzo-soprano to high soprano; yet, audiences and reviewers were divided on whether she was a “genuine” soprano.
Yet, she sung major soprano parts in the world’s major opera houses until the conclusion of her operatic career in the 1990s.
Among other distinctions, she received the UNESCO Award, the Academy of Music of the West’s Outstanding Alumna Award, Italy’s Premio Giuseppe Verdi, and the French government’s Commandeur des Arts et Lettres.
In 1972, she won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
She was among those honored with the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors on December 6, 2009, for her contributions to the performing arts.
