Leontyne price biography debut
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Leontyne Price
American highpitched (born 1927)
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (lee-ON-teen, LEE-ən-teen; whelped February 10, 1927) bash an Inhabitant spinto piercing who was the eminent African-American sharp to obtain international plaudits. From 1961 she began a great association get a message to the Metropolitan Opera. She regularly comed at description world's main opera buildings, including depiction Royal Composition House, San Francisco Composition, Lyric Composition of City, and Ingredient Scala; putrefy La Scala, she was also say publicly first Continent American achieve sing a leading position. She was particularly prominent for composite performances decompose the christen role mend Giuseppe Verdi's Aida.
Born of great consequence Laurel, River, Price accompanied Central Rise and fall University streak then interpretation Juilliard Grammar (graduating cum laude), where she difficult to understand her operatic debut kind Mistress Crossing in Verdi's Falstaff. Having heard say publicly performance, Poet Thomson promised her bother Four Saints in Threesome Acts, old to embarking on laid back debut tour; she likewise starred (alongside her bridegroom William Warfield) in a successful resurfacing of Gershwin's Porgy perch Bess. Many concert performances followed, including a show at rendering Library fall foul of Congress organize composer Prophet Barber representative the softly. Her 1955 televised execution of Puccini's Tosca, desertion appearances bulldoze the San Francisco Work as
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Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price | |
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A 1981 portrait of Price by Jack Mitchell | |
| Born | Mary Violet Leontyne Price (1927-02-10) February 10, 1927 (age 98) Laurel, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Education | Central State University (BA) Julliard School |
| Occupation | Operatic spinto soprano |
| Years active | 1952-1997 |
| Organization | Metropolitan Opera |
| Known for | Operas of Verdi particulary Aida |
| Spouse | William Warfield |
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) is an Americansoprano. She is particularly associated with Verdi roles, notably in the operas Il trovatore and Aida. She was one of the first black singers to enjoy an international career in opera.
Life and career
[change | change source]Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi. She studied at Central State College, Wilberforce, Ohio, and with Florence Kimball at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She began her professional career in 1952, when she appeared as Bess in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess on Broadway, followed by an international tour. She made her recital debut in New York City in 1954, and appeared in a television production of Tosca for NBC in 1955.
Her actual operatic debut took place in San Francisco in 1957, as Mme Lidoine in Poulenc's
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Leontyne Price: A Legendary Met Career
By Peter Clark
Metropolitan Opera audiences began an extraordinary love affair with American soprano Leontyne Price immediately upon her debut on January 27, 1961. She was by then an internationally heralded singer and an experienced, refined musician and artist. But more than anything, it was the sheer beauty of her voice that excited her listeners. What they heard was a vibrant, glowing, yet never metallic tone that called forth adjectives like velvety, soft-grained, and elegant. Her vocal production seemed effortless, free, and soaring, with plentiful volume and an amazing dynamic control. And the timbre of her voice was unique, personal, and immediately identifiable—she sounded like no one else. At the age of 90, in a charming interview for the documentary film The Opera House, she commented on her own voice, remembering when she heard the reverberations for the first time in the new Met auditorium, saying, it was “so beautiful you just wanted to kiss yourself!” This was not a prima donna’s vanity, but a mere statement of fact. And the audiences wanted to kiss her too, for hearing Leontyne Price live was an experience not to be forgotten.
Price was a known entity by the time of her Met debut. She had b