Racial Stereotypes in Opera

Deconstructing Racial Coding in Classical Music

with Kristen Buabin

About Kristen:

Texas born Soprano Kristen Buabin is a multidisciplined soprano, teacher, and DEI consultant. She shines in dramatic and comedic roles onstage and is dedicated to fighting for equity for singers in the classical music sector. Ms. Buabin joined the Boston Singers’ Resource in 2020 as the nonprofit’s first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion coordinator. This year she hopes to host a series of antiracism and decolonization listening sessions with Boston music professionals, increase accessibility at all BSR events, and create partnerships with college interest groups. The Boston based soprano is known for her warm, luscious tone and sparkling coloratura. Kristen received her MM in Opera Performance from Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Kristen’s recommended readings:

  1. Blackness in Opera by Naomi André, Karen M. Bryan, and Eric Saylor (University of Illinois Press, 2014)

  2. Opera Can No Longer Ignore Its Race Problem by Joshua Barone (NY Times, 2020)

  3. Turandot: Time to call it quits on Orientalist Opera? by Rob Buscher (Opera Philadelphia, 2016)

  4. The Ambiguity in Turandot: An Orientalist Perspective by Hong Yu (Nanjing University, 2018)

recommended contemporary works:

  1. Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terence Blanchard (2019), based on book by Charles M. Blow

  2. Highway 1, USA by William Grant Still (1963)

  3. The Mothers of Three Sons by Leroy Jenkins (1990)

  4. Tom Tom by Shirley Graham Du Bois (1932)

  5. Florencia de las Amazonas by Daniel Catan (1996)

  6. The Golden Pavilion by Toshiro Mayuzumi (1976), based on book by Yukio Mishima)

  7. The Silver River by Bright Sheng (1997)