U.S. soprano pulls out of Italian opera over theater's use of blackface: "Outright racist"

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

The U.S. singer posted a note on her angeljoyblue Instagram page saying she will be bowing out of "La Traviata" at Verona's Arena this month because the theater recently mounted another Giuseppe Verdi opera, "Aida," that had performers in blackface.

She blasted such use of "archaic" theatrical practices as "offensive, humiliating, and outright racist."