Sissieretta Jones sang for kings, presidents, and to audiences around the world, becoming the highest paid African-American entertainer of the late 19th century. She headlined at Carnegie Hall and was hailed as one of the greatest sopranos of her time, yet she never performed on the operatic stage.
She was born Matilda Sissieretta Joyner in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1868, the daughter of former slaves. A self-taught musical prodigy as a child, she received no formal training until she was a teenager after her family had relocated to Providence, Rhode Island.
At age fifteen, she studied under noted Italian diva, Ada Baroness Lacombe, at the Providence Academy of Music, then later at the Boston Conservatory of Music. Soon after starting her training, Sissieretta met and married David Richard Jones, who would act as her manager early in her career.
In the spring of 1888, Jones participated in a series of concerts throughout New England, as well as in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia. It is believed that a glowing review in the New York Clipper was the first to dub her as the “Black Patti,” a comparison to Adelina Patti, a renowned Italian opera singer at that time. It was a pseudonym that she would come to be known by throughout her career, although she preferred to be called “Madame Sissieretta Jones.”
It was at one these concerts that she was heard by an agent from the same management company that led the Metropolitan Opera. Jones contracted with the agency to join the Tennessee Jubilee Singers for a two-year tour of the West Indies and South America, where she was billed as the prima donna of the company. The troupe received rave reviews and Jones, in particular, was recognized as a standout. “Mdme. Jones, is the possessor of a pure and beautiful Soprano. Her range of voice is as remarkable as it is even, and her enunciation and method display the most careful cultivation,” Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica), August 13, 1888, p. 2.