Soprano Angel Blue is fresh off her acclaimed performance as Margarita Xirgu in Osvaldo Golijov’s opera. ainadamathe opera was performed for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera. On New Year’s Eve, she starred in the title role of Verdi’s opera Aida—The Metropolitan Opera’s first new production of this opera in decades. Until this year, Blue was probably best known for her acclaimed 2019 Met production of porgy and besswhose recording won a Grammy Award. Blue’s huge voice is like a cathedral of sound, dense columns of notes soaring into the sky, and her rich and smoky mid-low frequency firmly roots her in the earth. It’s a sound that radiates warmth and tenderness while expressing a passion that hints at untapped power. Blue is a charismatic performer who lives up to the ideals of this ambivalent opera singer: grace and vulnerability, perfection and rawness.
The 40-year-old singer began taking vocal lessons at age 6, initially under the tutelage of her father, Sylvester Blue, himself a pastor and accomplished gospel singer. Her family has an interest in music, dating back generations to her West Virginia coal miner grandfather, an opera lover and singer in a barbershop quartet. “There’s never been a time in my life when I didn’t sing… when it wasn’t a part of me,” Blue told the Observer.
As a child, she hit the road with her family, playing bass guitar in the family gospel band: her brother played drums, her mother played piano, and her father and sister sang. She said that in addition to bringing her the warmest memories of her family, this experience also gave her an early taste of performing in an orchestra. “It made me understand what it means to be part of a group, a team, and that’s what opera is; we’re part of a team. One person may be the leader, but at the end of the day, people come to see a team.
Unusually for a soprano, she spoke beautifully about working in a group and orchestra, and rooted herself in the performances of her fellow actors. She describes a whole as having a special energy when it comes to functioning. “I think it comes from being a theater kid, from being one of those kids when we were young and we were in the room pretending to sing or dance in front of the mirror… when we all had that energy, that excitement” .
See also: The most anticipated art museum openings and expansions of 2025
Such a dynamic band took to the stage ainadama Just this fall. “If I could sing this opera twice a year, I would,” Blue said. She found Deborah Kalk’s energetic directorial style and the carefully choreographed music throughout the eighty minutes to be very exciting. “I enjoy every rehearsal. I wake up in the morning excited, excited and ready to go.
An emotional and committed performer, tall and constantly moving around the stage, it’s hard to take your eyes off her. Blue fulfills the illusion of the beautiful opera singer, making the audience believe we can see her, her heart completely open and her most raw emotions revealed. As a performer, she is able to explore rich emotional veins, displaying an intimacy with text and music, as well as ferocious intention and rigor in her phrasing and vocal style. “Every word has to mean something to me,” Blue said. “If it doesn’t make sense to me, it’s like a blank moment on stage for me.”
Not every show is like ainadamaHowever, since her career took off about fifteen years ago, Blue has played many of the same traditional roles, such as Mimi and Musetta, numerous times. When asked how she gets back into acting when she finds herself drifting off, Blue responded that she makes an extra effort to interact with other actors. “I’ll look into their eyes and understand how they’re feeling and try to really understand from them who they are, which helps me understand who I am in their world and who I am in mine. That usually works. Let me come back.
She grew up singing in her father’s church and in her family’s touring gospel band, and religion and spirituality stayed with her into adulthood. “People can feel down about their faith and religion, like they don’t measure up to this or that standard, but I never felt that way growing up,” Blue said. “I think that’s one of the reasons I keep the faith.” The average soprano in opera is bound to go through a lot of turbulent emotional weather. It’s difficult to separate Blue’s skill at holding and channeling her emotions from her spirituality, from what she describes as a closeness to God. What is certain is that this passion for performance has been carefully crafted and honed over decades of training. However, blue also has a special ability to drive extra dimensions of meaning. Her performance in some roles is so good that she seems to touch the supernatural, breaking the psychological barriers of the audience and bringing them into the world of the story. It is exciting to observe this hint of contradictory possibility on stage.
An opera career is a steep mountain to climb, with challenges that often seem insurmountable. Blue said that closeness to God has also helped her navigate this difficult industry. “The Bible says we all fall short of God’s glorious standard, and it’s true… We all make mistakes, but there is grace in making mistakes.” She says the concept of grace has been instrumental in her music career. Given centuries of operatic performance and the industry’s rigorously high standards, Blue said she “failed to live up to that standard many, many times.” Yet, in singing, as in one’s soul growth, “there should be grace to try again and to return.”
