Breaking with the Past

Abstract

This chapter explains the interplay of race, gender, and opera after 1945. Narratives of post-war West German and Austrian cultural life frequently show Anglo-American actors as the primary agents of change. Following the Holocaust and the Nazi racial state, the Allied powers pushed policies to drastically alter the function of German musical culture. Longstanding notions of Blackness shaped the production and reception of operas featuring Black singers in West Germany and Austria. The chapter references Annabelle Bernard, the first Black woman to be part of a German ensemble, who indicated the lack of opportunity in America made her stay in Europe to sing.