A. Kori Hill
It’s 1893. You’re sitting in Music Hall. If you’re white, you’re sitting on the orchestra level, maybe in a box seat; if you’re Black, you’re in the gallery. Music Hall won’t be integrated for another 70+ years. A majestic Black woman enters the stage, bows, and begins to sing. Her voice is high, sweet, and gorgeous as she sings arias from Bellini’s Norma, Meyebeer’s L’Africaine, and “Comin’ thro’ the Rye.” When she’s done, you and everyone else erupts into rousing applause. You’ve just heard Sissieretta Jones!
Born Matilda Sissieretta Jones (1868–1933) in Portsmouth, Virginia, Sissieretta grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. She started singing in church choir, where her mother was encouraged to sign her up for music lessons. In 1883, Sissieretta studied at the Providence Academy of Music with Ada Baroness Lacombe and married bellman David Richard Jones.
Between 1883 and 1888, Sissieretta shared the stage or opened for major classical artists of her time: Flora Batson, Madame Marie Selika, and Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins. From 1888 to 1891, she performed on two tours to the Caribbean and South America with the Fisk Jubilee Singers, under management with Adelina Patti’s manager. During the tour, she received numerous medals that she wore proudly for photos and performances. And she even found time to study at the New England Conservatory!
In 1892, she made her Washington DC debut, sang at Madison Square Garden, and performed at Carnegie Hall, with Harry T. Burleigh! From 1895 to 1896, Sissieretta took Europe by storm, giving concerts in Italy, Russia, and Germany.
After an invite to perform at The Met was rescinded due to racist pressures, Sissieretta founded The Black Patti Troubadours. The name was a reference to her nickname in the press, the “Black Patti,” due to stylistic similarities to her Italian peer, Adelina Patti. (also see Black Patti Records!).
A company of singers, jugglers, comedians, and dancers, The Troubadours would perform arias, operettas, and comedic theater sketches. The highest paid African American of her time, Sissieretta made sure they traveled safely; she paid for a train car that took them to their gigs.
The Troubadours disbanded in 1915 when Sissieretta retired from performing to take care of her mother. She lived the rest of her life in financial straits, even having to sell her medals. In 2018, folks fundraised for a headstone, which now marks her resting place in Providence’s Grace Church Cemetery.
As a soprano with a high range, Sissieretta would sing selections from grand and light opera. A typical solo concert would feature “Sempre Libera” from Verdi’s La Traviata and a popular song like Stephen Foster’s minstrel ballad “Old Folks at Home (Swanee River).”
One critic in the Saratoga Union described her voice as “beautiful, clear, steady and resonant…The exquisite crispness with which she executes complicated scales in rapid time delight all. Withal she sings intelligently, without affectation, and with much feeling.” Considering this description, what aria would you want to hear Sissieretta sing?
