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Beautiful Music NOW - Robert McFerrin

Carl Van Vechten
/
US Library of Congress

The Grammy-winning, multi-talented singer/songwriter/conductor Bobby McFerrin is the son of musicians -- his father, Robert McFerrin Sr. was a prominent opera singer. The Arkansas-born baritone debuted with New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1955, becoming the first African-American man in the company. Mr. McFerrin Sr. also sang with the National Negro Opera Company and the New York City Opera Company, and if you saw the 1959 film PORGY AND BESS, you heard Robert McFerrin Sr.'s singing voice dubbed in for actor Sidney Poitier.

Today's Beautiful Music is Mr. McFerrin's performance of the aria PARI SIAMO from Giuseppe Verdi's opera RIGOLETTO. You can also learn more about Robert McFerrin Sr.

Suzanne Bona is the host and executive producer of Sunday Baroque, a nationally syndicated weekly radio show of Baroque and early music which she originated on WSHU in 1987.