It’s not the first time that the use of blackface makeup for a staging of “Aida” in Verona has sparked a soprano’s protest.

Soprano Angel Blue said she would not perform at the Verona theater after it recently staged a different opera in which performers were in blackface.

Soprano Angel Blue will not be making her debut at the Verona's Arena in Italy later this month after learning the theater used blackface during a production in 2002.

Blue isn’t involved in the Aida performance but for obvious reasons objects to Netrebko’s use of Blackface, and by extension to Arena di Verona’s decison to allow her to proceed.

Grammy-award winning opera singer, Angel Blue, withdraws from La Traviata at Arena di Verona in Italy after the arena uses blackface in another production.

The Arena this summer has mounted performances of "Aida" based on a 2002 staging of the opera classic by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli who died in 2019. That staging uses blackface.

It’s not the first time that the use of blackface makeup for a staging of “Aida” in Verona has sparked a soprano’s protest. In 2019, opera singer Tamara Wilson, who is white, protested ...

FILE – In this June 21, 2002 file photo, a huge pyramid dominates the stage of the opening performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida in the Verona Arena, northern Italy. Riccardo Muti will open the ...

Angel Blue, an African American soprano, has stepped down from her role as Aida at the La Traviata Verona theater in Verona, Italy.

Soprano Angel Blue says she won’t perform in an opera in Italy this month because blackface was used in a different work on the same stage.

Soprano Angel Blue says she won't perform in an opera in Italy this month because blackface was used in the staging of another work this summer.