Madame Marie Selika

Though her career as a coloratura was eclipsed by Sissieretta Jones aka 'The Black Patti' in later years, for a time Selika held forth as the preeminent artist and biggest drawing card of the day.

Born Marie Smith (1849 - 1937), she borrowed the pseudonym from the lead character Selika in L'Africaine. Petite and demure looking with refined features, Marie Selika was heralded as the "Queen of Staccato," a title she earned from her exemplary singing of show pieces such as Mulder's "Staccato Polka." The piece, showing off her solid two-octave range (from C to C) and her flair for ornamentation, became her signature work. She was the first black concert artist to sing at the White House (during the Hayes administration), preceding Sissieretta Jones (Black Patti), by ten years. She also sang for the Queen of England in 1883.

Details about her birth, early life and parentage are scant and conflicting. Little information is available prior to 1875, except that she was born circa 1849 in Natchez, Mississippi. She studied voice as a child under the patronage of a wealthy white family who arranged for her lessons with a professional teacher. Between 1873 and 1876, she moved to San Francisco, where she continued her voice studies with Italian singer, Signora G. Bianchi. In Chicago she studied with a coach named Farini and met her future husband baritone concert singer, Sampson Williams (an African American man who billed himself as Signor Velosko a 'Hawaiian Baritone'). Both studied with Antonio Farini, who taught the so-called Italian method.

She settled in the Northeast, and in Boston was said to have replaced the indisposed Hungarian soprano Etelka Gerster at a concert one evening, to critical acclaim. In 1878 the black press announced the engagement of the young singer to perform the title role in L'Africaine at the Philadelphia Academy of Music.

From 1882 to 1885, Selika and her husband toured Europe, performing in Paris, Russia, Germany, and England, and giving a command performance for Queen Victoria at St. James' Hall in October 1883. She performed at the Musée du Nord in Brussels and sang Weber's Der Freischütz in Germany. The press reported that the European trips provided excellent musical experiences for Selika and Sampson Williams.

In November 1878, just two years after her concert debut, she along with her husband became the first African American concert singers to perform at the White House. Announced by Frederick Douglass, their performance took place in the Green Room for an audience that included President and Mrs. Rutherford Hayes. Her performance included Verdi’s “Ernani, involami,” Thomas Moore’s “The Last Rose of Summer,” Harrison Millard’s “Ave Maria,” and Richard Mulder’s “Staccato Polka.” Her husband, also sang, by popular request, the well known ballad “Far Away” by Bliss.

In the years following her performance at the White House, Williams continued to tour nationally performing for all black audiences. She interspersed her national performances with two tours of Europe, one from 1882-1885, where she gave a command performance in October of 1883 at St. James Hall for Queen Victoria, and another from 1887-1892.

Selika performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and soon after the couple settled in Cleveland, Ohio. On October 12, 1896, Selika, Sissieretta Jones, and Flora Batson—the three leading black singers of the period sang together at New York City's Carnegie Hall. She also toured the West Indies.

Despite Williams’s successful career and her status as the leading black prima donna of her time, she frequently struggled to obtain good professional management, even managing her own concerts on occasion. The prevalent racism of the era prevented black artists from being easily accepted in anything other than Minstrel shows, and blacks would not be welcomed to the American operatic stage until the 1930s.

After her husband's death in 1911 and with her career in decline, Selika accepted a teaching position at the Martin-Smith Music School in New York City. A testimonial concert in her honor was given in 1919, at which she performed. She was active as a private teacher until her death on May 19, 1937, in New York City.

Selika reigned for almost three decades as a queen of song in the United States and Europe. She was the first concert coloratura in African-American music culture. As a tribute to her vocal excellence, Frederick G. Carnes wrote Selika, A Grand Vocal Waltz of Magic, which included staccato passages, trills, and vocal cadenzas.

Sources: Facts On File Encyclopedia of Black Women in America: The Early Years, 1617 - 1899 Darlene Clark Hine, editor (NY) 1997; N. Weston, Photographer, San Francisco, California