Lillian Evanti: A Brief Biography
Black opera singer Lillian Evans-Tibbs, also known by her stage name, Madame Lillian Evanti was born in Washington, DC and was active from 1925 through 1945. She was the first African American opera singer to perform with a major European opera company, and she spent the majority of her time working abroad in Europe, South America, and Africa. She also had a successful career in the United States, working mostly along the East coast and some of the Midwest. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Howard University and joined the sorority Zeta Phi Beta, which helped her succeed in business as well as performing. She was a composer, educator, and prolific performer as a coloratura soprano.
A highlight of her operatic career was performing the role of Violetta in the National Negro Opera Company’s (NNOC) performance of Verdi’s La Traviata. Along with this momentous performance, she was a founding member of the organization, trailblazing the future for other black musicians. In addition to her career as a performer and composer, she was also very involved with political and social activism. A defining moment of this activism was in 1963, when together with her friend Alma Thomas, she participated in the March on Washington. Lillian Evanti’s legacy lives on in photographs and newspaper articles, giving us a glimpse of her wonderful career and life.
Photos Cited
Figure 1: “Madame Lillian Evanti.” Anacostia Community Museum. Smithsonian. Accessed November 8, 2022. https://anacostia.si.edu/collection/spotlight/madame-lillian-evanti.
Figure 2: Forlaw, Blair. “Opera Diva Lillian Evanti.” DC History Center, March 24, 2021. https://dchistory.org/opera-diva-lillian-evanti/.