Background/Story
This button may have been created in honor of Sissieretta Jones, an internationally recognized American soprano of her day. She toured Europe in 1888 and again in 1890 to perform before kings and queens. She performed at the White House for presidents.
In 1894, she performed in a charity concert directed by composer Antonin Dvořák (who wrote the symphony From the New World in 1882)
to raise money for the New York Herald’s Free Clothing Fund.
(see also article by Majda Kallab Whitaker on Dvořák American Heritage Association)
… the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called the Negro melodies… These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American.
The fundraising concert on June 15 1894 was at the Carnegie Hall, but not on the main stage. It was an all-black stage, to a sold-out 1200-seat “Recital Hall” (known today as Zankel Hall). Sissieretta sang Sempre Libera (from the opera La Traviata by Verdi) in which the heroine Violetta sings “I must always be free, rushing from pleasure to pleasure; I want my life to follow the path of enjoyment.” (source: Sissieretta Jones: The Greatest Singer of Her Race by Maureen D. Lee)
View this video on YouTube (or Duck Player)
Click to learn more in Unladylike on PBS
Sissieretta as a black was never allowed to be on the opera stage. Still, she performed Nobil Donna and Nobil Signor from Les Huguenots, a historical drama of Catholics and Protestants at war in 16th century France.
