Opera — it's so dramatic, with stories about small-town girls who become big-time divas and recording artists... oh wait, that's real-life, and it's the story of mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis.
She has a brand-new album out, her debut, entitled Evolution. It's a vivid musical autobiography that blends opera with contemporary sounds, reflecting her story as a Black girl from small-town Texas who found her voice on the world stage.
She sat down to share a bit with the Texas Public Radio audience, and talk about the project. "I was able to get in contact with some beautiful composers to tell what is essentially my story," she says. "My family's from Jamaica; I was born in Mexico, and I grew up in Keene, Texas."
All those voices and influences and cultures and languages made a one-of-a-kind recipe for a cosmopolitan musician who is open to drawing virtually anything into herself.
"I just wanted to be this kaleidoscope that you sit down and you just get lost in this cinematic universe, where you can't be bored for a second, 'cuz the moment you settle in something new, a huge new explosion of colors is coming at you."
The album has original works and reimagined classics — like Schubert with a French Guianese rapper, a "Verdi / South African dystopian dance hall piece" with Jamaican legend Lady Ann, and a heartfelt track with Texas-based Dominican artist EJ Galvez.
Says Bryce-Davis: "I wanted to create something that encompassed all of those colors, all of those cultures, all of those rhythms, and call it my own. It's an opera album, but it's the opera album that only I can make."
