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The
Marian Anderson Stamp: The Dallas Opera and USPS Commemorate Opera
Legend
On February 13,
2005 The Dallas Opera joined the US Postal Service in celebrating the
legacy of African-American opera legend Marian Anderson with the
release of a new stamp in the Black Heritage series. The presentation
was the regional unveiling of the new stamp and paid tribute to the
life and work of this extraordinary performer. As a part of the
presentation, Dallas Opera Director of Education Margery Anderson-Clive
performed excerpts from her one woman show, "Deep River", based on
Anderson's life.
Ms. Anderson-Clive's
participation in the event extended beyond her role as a representative
of The Dallas Opera. The event was a milestone for Ms.
Anderson-Clive who credits Marian Anderson as a personal role model and
major source of inspiration in her own life and career.
A
tribute to the life of Marian Anderson...
For many years,
it seemed less likely that Marian's dream of becoming an opera singer
would ever come true.
On her way to the high
school each
morning , Marian would pass under the train trestle. Watching the
trains go by, she would say to herself, "Oh, if only one of these days,
I could be on a train with the Metropolitan Opera going somewhere -
anywhere."
Marian had just about
given up, when one
day, in 1954, she got a telephone call from the Met inviting her to
audition. Before she could return from the audition to her apartment,
the telephone was ringing. Marian barely got to the phone before the
caller hung up. It was her agent, Mr. Sol Hurok. His first words were,
"Congratulations!
Marian
was flabbergasted. The
first thing she did was to call her mother, Anna Delilah Anderson, who
had told her years before that there would be a way for Marian to learn
what she needed to know so that her dream of being a singer would come
true. Read the full story
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