Mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett dies at 79 in Mich.

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[November 06, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Acclaimed American mezzo-soprano and soprano Shirley Verrett, who was praised for her singing in Verdi repertory staples, has died. She was 79.

InsuranceManager Jack Mastroianni (MAS'-tree-ah-nee) of IMG Artists says Verrett had been suffering from heart trouble and died Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich. Mastroianni was notified of Verrett's death by the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

Verrett was one of the top black opera singers of the 1970s and 1980s.

Born in New Orleans, she studied at the Juilliard School in New York and won a Marian Anderson Award and a scholarship from the John Hay Whitney Foundation. She was a 1961 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

[Associated Press; By RONALD BLUM]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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