Grace Melzia Bumbry (January 4, 1937 – May 7, 2023) was an American opera singer, considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, who also ventured to soprano roles.

Bumbry's voice was rich and dynamic, possessing a wide range, and was capable of producing a very distinctive plangent tone.

In her prime, she also possessed good agility and bel canto technique, as for example her rendition of Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo in the 1970s and 1980s.

[3] Bumbry trained in classical piano beginning at age 7, but determined she would become a singer after seeing Marian Anderson in concert.

At age 17, at the urging of Billups and Sara Hopes, her choir director, she entered and won a teen talent contest sponsored by St. Louis radio station KMOX.

Prizes for first place included a $1,000 war bond, a trip to New York, and a scholarship to the St. Louis Institute of Music.

[3] She later transferred to Northwestern University,[1] where she met Lotte Lehmann, a German dramatic soprano, especially for Wagner roles, who gave master classes there and was impressed.

[1] In 1958, she was a joint winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions with soprano Martina Arroyo;[4][6] later that year, she made her recital debut in Paris.

[6] She caused a sensation;[6] while conservative opera-goers were outraged at the idea, Bumbry's performance was so moving that by the end of the opera she had won the audience over and they applauded for 30 minutes, necessitating 42 curtain calls.

[19] In November 1962, she starred in the title role of the musical Carmen Jones in a studio cast album recorded in London with British performers and an orchestra conducted by Kenneth Alwyn.

[20] Bumbry made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London in 1963 as Eboli, alongside Boris Christoff as the king and Tito Gobbi as Posa, in a 1958 production by Luchino Visconti.

[1][6] A reviewer noted: She sang the 'veil song' beautifully with a light coloration not easy for mezzos to come by, but she also had the full range of stops to make "O Don Fatale" an experience in musical drama rather than merely an exercise in vocal agility.

[6]In 1966 she appeared as Carmen opposite Jon Vickers's Don José in two different lauded productions, one with conductor Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg,[6] and the other for her debut with the San Francisco Opera.

[1] Other noted soprano roles included Chimène in Le Cid, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and Elvira in Verdi's Ernani.

[30][31] In 2010, after an absence of many years from the opera stage, she performed in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris,[32] She appeared at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as the Old Lady in Bernstein's Candide in 2012,[6] and finally as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame at the Vienna State Opera on January 30, 2013,[33] conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

Initially, Bumbry began her career as a mezzo-soprano, but later expanded her repertoire to include many dramatic soprano roles.

[1] Bumbry's earliest recordings are of oratorios made in the late 1950s with the Utah Symphony conducted by Maurice Abravanel,[6] including Handel's Israel in Egypt and Judas Maccabeus.

[30][38] She recorded Handel's Messiah[1] in London in 1961[30] conducted by Adrian Boult, alongside Joan Sutherland and Kenneth McKellar.