Mitchell in New York last week. (Angel Chevrestt)
Raised by her immigrant grandmother in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the 1980s, Laquita Mitchell sang gospel with her choir at the Cornerstone Baptist Church.
Her voice blended into the chorus and no one singled her out as possessing any special talent. But even with no encouragement, Mitchell knew she had a passion for music.
Next Sunday, the 35-year-old soprano will take her first star turn in her hometown, playing the lead role of Violetta in New York City Opera’s production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Mitchell’s parents were high-school students when they met and were too young to care for her on their own. Her Panamanian grandmother supported them by working as a maid. Mitchell grew up in a Brooklyn brownstone owned by her godmother, a recent NYC transplant from the South.
“We grew our fruits and vegetables in our back yard,” recalled Mitchell, who attended PS 309 in Bed-Stuy and lived across the street. “We had a peach tree. It was the closest thing to recreating the South in Brooklyn. I was raised by older people, which affected my view of things.”
Growing up, Mitchell listened to Aretha Franklin albums, gospel music and R&B.
“No one in my family sang,” she said. “Before junior high, we moved to Flatbush and because I was new at school, I wasn’t allowed to be in the choir. When high school was rolling around, I knew there was nothing for me at my area high school.”
Her grandmother just wanted her to graduate, but Mitchell pushed for more.
Eager to excel on stage, Mitchell decided to audition for a spot at LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts — the highly selective Manhattan public school for students in dance, music and drama and the model for the movie “Fame.”
With her untrained voice, she belted out “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and was accepted as a voice student.
Because her voice was too high to sing gospel, Mitchell was encouraged to take classes in opera.
Meeting and watching African-American soprano Jessye Norman — one of the highest paid and most famous divas in the world — on a chance field trip to the Met made everything click, recalled Mitchell.
“The sheer magnitude of the sound hit me,” said Mitchell. “I’d never seen anyone who looked like me on stage. Seeing Ms. Norman perform, I realized I could do something else besides R&B, hip-hop, or gospel music.”
Norman, 67, took Mitchell under her wing, meeting with her once a year and acting as her mentor. (She will be in the audience to listen to her protégée perform at BAM.) Mitchell is still a rarity.
“There’s a decline of African-American women [in the opera world],” she said. “People have their thoughts about what beauty is and what things should look like. Sometimes that overrides the talent.”
As for playing the role of a European courtesan, Mitchell just shrugs.
“What else am I to do?” she said. “All the operas are Western. I can sing Bess [in ‘Porgy and Bess’], but I can’t just sing her for the rest of my life.”
Her dream role is to sing the lead in the little-known tragic opera “Jenufa” by Czech composer Leos Janacek. “It’s based on a folk tale about his people,” she said. “The music and the story speak to me.”