New diva on the block; some critics say Denyce Graves is the best 'Carmen' ever

Ebony, Feb, 1996 by Richette L. Haywood

DENYCE GRAVES is happy. Really happy Not the here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of happiness that comes from overnight success. Hers is the happiness that comes from being young and beautiful and smart enough to know your "arrival" is the result of hard work and the grace of God.

"There is nothing that makes me this happy,".says Graves, referring to the way she feels when she stands on stage and mesmerizes an audience with her award-winning mezzo soprano voice. It is, in fact, her portrayal of "Carmen" that has opera critics singing her praises as one of the greatest performers ever to sing the role. At 31, Graves' star is comfortably nestled between celebrity and celestial after a rollercoaster ride that bottomed out when she lost her voice on the eve of her first triumph and had to spend a year as a secretary before doctors diagnosed the problem.

"Because I am a baby in this," she says, "a lot of things are happening to me for the first time. And all these experiences are different. So, I'm getting a repertoire of things that I know I need in order to be successful."

Clearly, she will need them all. Already, she has been heralded internationally by opera critics for her seductive and graceful portrayal of Bizet's gypsy temptress "Carmen," and she has been proclaimed by USA Today as one of "the singers most likely to be [an] operatic superstar of the 21st century."

"But there is so much more," says Graves, whose voice reveals her passionate love for her art. "The world is so big and there is so much out there to appreciate. I feel like I'm just getting my feet wet. There is so much I want to do--so many more roles that I want to play, so many other places where I want to sing. I haven't even begun." Says her husband, David Pen-y: "Her dreams are much bigger than my dreams. I had to come up to her level." As a young Black woman who is living her dream, she sees no limits, no boundaries. She wants to do it all. Everything. "I'd love to write, to sculpt, to play the piano and the cello beautifully. I'd love to do films," says Graves who recently released her first solo CD titled Recital-Heroines de l'Opera Romantique Francais on the French FNAC label.

That she believes she can do it all is a testament to her inner strength. She grew up in one of the poorest sections of the nation's capital. But, thanks to her mother, she was never allowed to focus on what she didn't have. Rather, it was drilled into her that she was special. And being special meant that she could have a better life--if she worked hard enough. In the years that have passed since she left home to pursue her dream, she has grown into her role as an oper-a diva. And when she descends the two-tier staircase in her 5,500-square-foot home in Leesburg, Va., she is literally gliding. With a body and voice that most American women would gladly give their weight in gold to have, Graves cuts quite a figure in black velvet pants that tastefully showcase her shape, which she maintains by working out in her basement gym.

Unlike some opera divas, she has a reputation of being a genuinely nice person. Even as a child, she remembers "always trying to be good, to not cause her [mother] any more aggravation." She boasts of having "a fabulous mother. That's the truth. She drives me crazy, but she's on the job."

Graves says she was little more than one year old when her father, who i, now a Baptist minister, left the family. It was her mother, Dorothy, who raised Graves, her sister, Debora, and older brother, Andre. Although she tempered her,strictness with an abundance of encouragement, Graves' mother, who worked a clerical job to support her family, was a taskmaster. She made certain her children had no free time to roam the streets and get into trouble. Their time was to be used constructively--in church, singing, doing schoolwork or household chores.

That was fine with Graves, mainly because the neighborhood children didn't like her. "I was one of the weird kids," she says, "one of the kids who was not `in.'" It wasn't until she went to The Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts in her hometown that she found her place, a place where, at long last, she felt she could be herself.

It was also where, at 14, she discovered her passion for opera, the place where, after hearing opera legend Leontyne Price sing, she decided "I can do that." After taking only two years to graduate from the performing arts high school, she went on to learn and absorb her art at Oberlin College Conservatory. When her voice teacher left to go to the New England Conservatory, she followed.

After graduating from the New England Conservatory, where she learned to sing in French, German and Italian, she felt ready to take on the world. Then, without warning, her world collapsed. After winning an audition for the Metropolitan Opera's Young Artist Program, she began experiencing vocal problems. She saw nearly a dozen doctors and none could pinpoint the problem. Their only advice to her was "quit before you do any more damage to your voice." Emotionally devastated, she dropped out of the competition and stopped singing for a year. She took a secretarial position at a hospital and hung her dreams out to dry. During that period, a New York doctor discovered that she was suffering from a treatable thyroid problem, a diagnosis that opened the door for Act II of her Dream.