At the Metropolitan Opera, Latonia Moore has broken out singing Black women in American operas (Serena in Porgy and Bess, Billie in Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and next season Emelda Griffith in Champion). Work is work, and the Met is the Met—but who supposes that these are the assignments this gifted soprano dreamed of when she began studying voice? In 2000, Moore aced the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions with arias by Charpentier and Mozart. She was not to appear in the house again until 2012, replacing an ailing colleague at one day’s notice in a live Saturday-afternoon radio broadcast. Her role? Aida, who is Black, too—but the music Aida sings is Verdi’s. For Moore, as previously for Leontyne Price and no end of other divas of color, the enslaved Ethiopian princess has opened many doors. In Los Angeles, Moore appears opposite Melody Moore (no relation) as Aida’s imperious Egyptian rival and mistress, with Russell Thomas as the man of war both women long for. The production, by Francesca Zambello, is new to Los Angeles. James Conlon conducts. —Matthew Gurewitsch