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New Kid on the Block
Norman Shankle Talks Candidly About Being an African-American Tenor in Today's Opera World

By Hampton Smith

"With his first post-apprenticeship contract well underway at the Stuttgart Opera, tenor Norman Shankle's career is off to an impressive start. The signs of support from important critical and managerial quarters have been strong. Does he foresee race playing a role in his career? To what extent has it been a subject of concern for him thus far? Shankle is generally optimistic about the future, but not naïve.

"I'm from Winchester, Virginia which is a long way in every way from Stuttgart where I'm living now. My family was not particularly musical. My aunt studied music theater and has worked in it, but that's about it really. I probably didn't appear to be really focused on music when I was young. Although I have always enjoyed music, growing up in Winchester I never considered it as a real, viable career. I wish I had studied piano as a kid but at the time, if lessons had been offered to me I probably wouldn't have taken them.

"I wasn't really musical until high school. I was doing other things. Music was important but it wasn't the most important thing. I sang in the choir in high school. I had enjoyed music and singing before that, but middle school being what it is, I didn't show any real outward interest. It wasn't cool for boys. Being black in small-town Virginia definitely had an influence on my decision not to share my interest in music until later. I was in academic classes in high school. There weren't a lot of other black kids in class with me. There were other black kids in the high school but they were certainly no friends of mine, not only because I was in academic courses, but because I also sang in the chorus, and that wasn't a Winchester kind of thing to do, particularly if you were black.

"Once, when I was in college, I visited my sister-in-law's high school class in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was basically an all-black group of kids. I sang for them and then talked about what they wanted to do when they went to college. They asked why I sang opera and not jazz. I told them that a person can like more than one thing. I explained that I loved jazz but that it was not the style of music I wanted to perform and that I had found something I did well and stuck with it. I've never believed that I had to sing jazz - whether I was good or not - because I was black. I'm good at singing what I sing and I enjoy it.

"In high school I took voice lessons from a classmate's father, Lloyd Robb. He had seen me in the school musical and asked if I was interested in studying voice. After graduation I didn't know what I wanted to do although I was still interested in music and at the time I enjoyed musicals - which is kind of odd because now I really don't like them - so I went to the Shenandoah Conservatory where they offered a degree in voice.

"As a freshman I roomed with a senior so I met lots of older students who were interested in opera and classical music. I was one of only two freshmen who sang in the choir. The college really didn't have an opera program as such, so as a classical singer the big outlet was the chorus. We had a really good chorus teacher. After college I sang in the Washington Opera Chorus for two years. I did Merola and the Adler fellowship programs in San Francisco after that.

"There just aren't many black opera singers. People study opera in school, but once out of school there are just not a lot of us. I've been out of school for eight years and I have come across probably no more than five black singers in my professional life. I was covering Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore in San Francisco and I knew that the person covering Adina, Tammy Jenkins, was black, and at the first rehearsal we found out that the guy covering Belcore, Nmon Ford-Levine, was also black. I remember we walked into the room, looked at each other, and said 'what's going on?' I don't know if I'll ever have that situation again. I hope so. It would have been a great show if we'd all done it."

What do you think about making up white? "Arbace in Idomeneo in San Francisco was the closest I think I'll ever come to that. I don't think they tried to make me up white. But at the time I was 29 and they were trying to make me look older than Gosta Winberg who was singing Idomeneo. Even now I have to have someone who really knows what they are doing with makeup or it looks bad. I don't know how many times someone has tried to put a straight, light brown wig on me, and then wondered why it doesn't look right. There were a couple of times I had to wear wigs and they actually got the color and texture right. I just can't wear the bob cut that people often want to put on me. If it's short and straight it looks ridiculous. As long as its curly it can work. That's the only option. Either that or nothing, which is fine. I've gone on without a wig. There is no point in pretending. Why slap the wig on when everyone knows I'm black?

"At least black women have a tradition of straightening their hair so if they put on a wig it's not as far a stretch as it is for a black man. Recently I had a ehearsal for The Return of Ulysses and it was the first night with the costume and the wig looked ridiculous. I told the costume people and by the third act they told me to take it off. I'm going to do it without the wig. Regardless of whether its historically correct or not, it just looks better."

"I'll be in Stuttgart for two years. When I auditioned here two years ago Pamela Rosenberg, who is now in San Francisco, hired me. It is a good opportunity. I'm getting good roles; they're not making me do little stuff. The first year, I'll sing Telemeco in The Return of Ulysses, the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, the Count in The Barber of Seville and Titus in La Clemenza di Tito.

"Starting a career in Germany has definitely been easier for me than it would have been in the U.S. I'm not sure whether we're trained better or held to a higher standard musically, but whichever the case, Americans have good musical training going for them and because of that and because the audiences don't care whether you're black or white, I think it's easier to work here. I think people here will accept me singing Romeo more willingly than in the States. It's pretty sad but I think it's true.

"Another part of the issue is that productions here are not traditional at all. In the States everything tends to be on the traditional side. Some of the productions here are wacky - almost anything goes - so it certainly makes no difference what race the singers are. The theaters here are really run by the dramaturg. Because so much is determined by the dramaturg, they don't spend a lot of time on the music. Some modern stagings can work when done by people who read music and have an appreciation for the music and don't displace the composer. On the other hand some stagings use the music as a backdrop. I've seen performances where things were happening on stage completely contrary to what the opera is about."

Is there a double standard for black women in opera? "Black women in the U.S. have definitely had it easier than black men. I think its been easier for people in the states to accept a black Juliette than a black Romeo. If someone were to do a production with Romeo as part of a street gang, they would probably be looking for a black Romeo. It's a horrible thing to say, but it's the truth. I don't think I'm being any kind of a radical by saying that. It's part of America. When people see a black man the first things that come to mind are gangs and violence, because of television.

"That dynamic doesn't operate in quite the same way in Europe though I truly don't know why. It's not that racism doesn't exist here. But I think being black may be an asset here sometimes. This past summer I went to Latvia to sing. People of color are rare there. Friends told me before going that people would want to talk to me, touch me, ask me for my autograph. They were right. People would stop me in the street to have their picture taken with me. I could have sung anything and they would have loved it. I could have fallen flat on my face and they would have gone crazy. It was a little too much. Here in Germany, I've definitely been given a warm reception. People backstage are complimentary. Audiences and staff are very friendly and receptive. I wonder if being a black American is perhaps better than being a black European or African. Somehow being a black American singing opera throws people. I think there are definitely people who don't know how to respond, at least at first.

"I love the U.S and I'd like to make the bulk of my career there. It seems that most singers have to spend at least half their time in Europe, and that's fine. But nothing beats the convenience and ease of living in the U.S. I've been very fortunate in the things I've been able to do professionally in Stuttgart and I know that. Not many of the black tenors I know have gotten to do the things I have. I know tenors who are better than I am and still haven't gotten to do these things in the States.

"Still, I don't know that I would advise a black tenor to start a career in Europe. The problem is that if you start here, you end up here. I think its really hard in the States unless you've got some kind of 'in.' In the States the concern with selling tickets is far greater than in Germany, for example. In the States it's all connected to money. Every detail of casting and staging has some kind of financial motive."

How do we build a black audience for opera? "Building an audience among black Americans is a complex issue. In the States I'd say 70 percent of the audience is not there for music's sake. They are there because they have money and can afford the tickets. So obviously the expense of a night at the opera is a problem. There are only so many shows even I would go see, and I'm a singer. Building an audience among black Americans will take more exposure, the generation of some sort of excitement and education. No one is interested in a performance unless they know what its about. It's going to take a while for all that to happen."