Anne Wiggins Brown (August 9, 1912March 13, 2009) was an American lyric soprano for whom George Gershwin rewrote the part of "Bess" into a leading role in the original production of his opera Porgy and Bess in 1935.
She was also a radio and concert singer. She settled in Norway in 1948 and later became a Norwegian citizen.
Early life and career (1912–1936)
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Annie Wiggins Brown was the daughter of Dr. Harry F. Brown, a physician, and his wife, the former Mary Allen Wiggins. Her father was the grandson of a slave and her mother's parents were of black, Cherokee Indian, and Scottish-Irish origins. She had three sisters, Henrietta, Mamie, and Harriet.
As an African-American, she was not allowed to attend a Catholic elementary school in her native Baltimore. She trained at Morgan College and then applied to the Peabody Institute, but was rejected from the school due to her race.
Brown then applied to the Juilliard School in New York at the encouragement of the wife of the owner of The Baltimore Sun.
In 1933, she was a second-year graduate student at Juilliard. She learned that George Gershwin was going to compose an opera about African Americans in South Carolina. She decided to write him a letter, which led to Gershwin's secretary calling her to come and sing for him. After singing several classical arias and the spiritual "A City Called Heaven" for Gershwin, Brown was frequently invited by the composer to come down and sing parts of the opera for him as he was composing the work's music. As a result, the role of Bess grew from a secondary character, like it was in DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy, to one of the opera's leading roles. The production was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and ran on Broadway for 124 performances. Olin Downes in The New York Times praised Brown's performance as "a high point of interpretation."
Later life and career: 1937–2009
thumb |right|Anne Brown receiving a [[Peabody Award, 1998]]
After her appearance as the first Bess, Brown returned to Broadway in the 1937 musical revue Pins and Needles. This was later followed by an appearance in the 1939 Broadway play Mamba's Daughters in the roles of Gardenia and the "Lonesome Walls" Singer. Brown sang Bess in several revivals of Porgy and Bess during this time, including the 1942 Broadway revival. She also sang Bess for the Decca Records album Selections from George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess and sang some of Bess's music in an appearance in the 1945 Gershwin biography film Rhapsody in Blue.
Brown toured Europe as a concert artist from 1942 to 1948. Brown said that she left the United States because of continued racial prejudice. As she told The New York Times in 1998, "We tough girls tough it out. I've lived a strange kind of life—half black, half white, half isolated, half in the spotlight. Many things that I wanted as a young person for my career were denied to me because of my color". produced her daughter, Paula, who was born in 1939. She had a second daughter, Vaar Inga, born in 1951 (the name means "springtime" in Norwegian), with Schjelderup, who also adopted Paula. Paula Schjelderup rarely saw her father, because of her parents’ poor relationship. Instead, Schjelderup considered Brown’s husband, Thorleif Schjelderup, to be her father figure. and opera singer Trond Halstein Moe. On October 9, 1980, Brown was interviewed for an article written by James A. Standifier called, "Reminiscences of Black Musicians". Brown also staged several operas in France and Norway. Brown was a guest of honor at the gala opening of the Oslo Opera House on April 12, 2008. She resided in Oslo up until her death in 2009 at age ninety-six.