~ Leontyne Price ~ Aida highlights vinyl LP front cover
photo by Styrous®
A week ago was the birthday of Leontyne Price; she was born Mary Violet Leontyne Price and raised in Laurel, Mississippi on February 10, 1927.
She took her first steps onto the grand operatic stage in San Francisco on September 20, 1957, singing Madame Lidoine in the U.S. premiere of the Francis Poulenc opera, Dialogues des Carmélites.
It is one of the flukes of my life that I saw her preform at the beginning of her career a few weeks later; she sang her first Aida, by Puccini, stepping in for Italian soprano Antonietta Stella who was suffering from appendicitis. The opera was performed at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, California, in October, 1957; I saw that performance. It was my very first live opera. During the second act, scene two, there were real elephants during the Triumpal March. WOW! How can you top that?
The second scene in act one has to be one of the most sensational moments in opera. It takes place in the Temple of Vulcane. It begins quiet, dreamy, almost spooky then builds to one of the most dramatic crescendos in opera. The second scene in act two includes the Triumpal March. It is mind-blowing. There are links to both on YouTube below and it is a trip to watch them in full screen. Aida put the "Grand" in Grand Opera!
She took her first steps onto the grand operatic stage in San Francisco on September 20, 1957, singing Madame Lidoine in the U.S. premiere of the Francis Poulenc opera, Dialogues des Carmélites.
It is one of the flukes of my life that I saw her preform at the beginning of her career a few weeks later; she sang her first Aida, by Puccini, stepping in for Italian soprano Antonietta Stella who was suffering from appendicitis. The opera was performed at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, California, in October, 1957; I saw that performance. It was my very first live opera. During the second act, scene two, there were real elephants during the Triumpal March. WOW! How can you top that?
The second scene in act one has to be one of the most sensational moments in opera. It takes place in the Temple of Vulcane. It begins quiet, dreamy, almost spooky then builds to one of the most dramatic crescendos in opera. The second scene in act two includes the Triumpal March. It is mind-blowing. There are links to both on YouTube below and it is a trip to watch them in full screen. Aida put the "Grand" in Grand Opera!
vinyl LP back cover
photo by Styrous®
As well as Price, bass Giorgio Tozzi and spinto tenor Jon Vickers, performers in the 1959 production I saw, are also on the vinyl LP I have; it's the reason I bought it.
Leontyne Price was 32 years old at the time of the concert, in the bloom of her physical beauty with a voice that was stunning. She was the ideal Aida and there has never been one more perfect nor more dazzling.
Leontyne Price was 32 years old at the time of the concert, in the bloom of her physical beauty with a voice that was stunning. She was the ideal Aida and there has never been one more perfect nor more dazzling.
Aida - program cover
Sunday, October 11, 1959
photo by Styrous®
Leontyne Price was the first African American to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera. In the late 1960s, she cut back her operatic performances in favor
of recitals and concerts. She became a
popular artist in the orchestral and performing arts series in the major
American cities and large universities. In the early 1970s, she also
returned to Europe, for opera performances in Hamburg and
Covent Garden in London, England, and gave her first recitals in Hamburg, Vienna, Paris,
and the Salzburg Festival. At the latter she became a favorite
recitalist, appearing in 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1984.
She continued to sing limited performances at the Metropolitan and San Francisco, but undertook only three new roles after 1970. They were the Puccini operas:
Giorgetta in Il tabarro (San Francisco only); Manon Lescaut (San Francisco and New York); and Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos (San Francisco and New York) by Richard Strauss.
In 1953 Price sang the role of Bess in the English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin, Porgy and Bess, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from the Dorothy and DuBose Heyward play Porgy, itself an adaptation of the DuBose Heyward 1925 novel of the same name.
London production of Porgy and Bess
Shiel/Getty Images
recordings
Most of Leontyne Price's commercial recordings were issued by RCA Victor Red Seal and include three complete recordings of Il trovatore by Verdi, two of La forza del destino also by Verdi, two of Aida, two of the Verdi Requiem, two of Tosca by Puccini, and one each of the Verdi operas: Ernani and Un ballo in maschera, the Mozart operas Cosí fan tutte and Don Giovanni (as Donna Elvira), the Puccini operas Il tabarro and Madama Butterfly, Carmen by Bizet and (her final complete opera recording) Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss. She also recorded a disc of highlights from Porgy and Bess, by Gershwin, singing the music of all three female leads. It was conducted by Skitch Henderson and featured William Warfield as Porgy.
She recorded five Prima Donna albums of operatic arias
generally of roles that she never performed on stage. She also recorded
two albums of Richard Strauss arias, recitals of French and German art songs, two albums of Spirituals, and a crossover disc, Right as the Rain, with André Previn. Her recordings of Hermit Songs, scenes from Antony and Cleopatra and Knoxville: Summer of 1915, all by Samuel Barber, were reissued on CD as Leontyne Price Sings Barber. Her most popular operatic aria collection is her first, the self-titled Leontyne Price,
sometimes referred to as the "Blue Album" because of its light blue
cover. It has been reissued on CD, and also on SACD. In 1971, RCA
released a spiritual album I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free, Price singing with the Rust College Choir
(Mississippi). In 1996, for her 70th birthday, RCA Victor issued a
limited-edition 11-CD boxed collection of her recordings, with an
accompanying book, entitled The Essential Leontyne Price.
Archival recordings of live performances have also appeared. Deutsche Grammophon released CDs of live Salzburg performances of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis (1959) and Il trovatore
(1962), both conducted by Herbert von Karajan. In 2002, RCA discovered a tape of
her 1965 Carnegie Hall recital debut and released it in its
"Rediscovered" series. In 2005, Bridge Records released the complete
1953 Library of Congress recital with Barber, including the Hermit Songs, La Voyante by Henri Sauguet, and songs by Poulenc. In August 2008, a
tape of a September 1952 Berlin performance of the Breen-Davis Porgy and Bess
was found in the Berlin radio archives and released on CD—offering the
earliest recorded glimpse of Price's voice and style. In 2011, Sony Classics brought out on disc her first two Met broadcasts, Il trovatore (1961) and Tosca (1962), both with Franco Corelli, followed in 2012 by a third broadcast, Ernani (1962) with Carlo Bergonzi.
In October 2001, at the age of 74, Price was asked to come out of
retirement to sing in a memorial concert at Carnegie Hall for the
victims of the September 11 attacks. With James Levine at the piano, she sang a favorite spiritual, This Little Light of Mine, followed by an unaccompanied God Bless America, ending it with a bright, easy B below high C.
photographer unknown
Before retiring, Price gave several master classes at Juilliard and
other schools. In 1997, at the suggestion of RCA Victor, she wrote a
children's book version of Aida, which became the basis for the hit Broadway musical by Elton John and Tim Rice in 2000.
British critic J.B. Steane
writes that "one might conclude from recordings that [Price] is the
best interpreter of Verdi of the century." In an interview, Price once
recalled that Maria Callas had told her,
during a meeting with the older diva in Paris, "I hear a lot of love in
your voice." The sopranos Renée Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jessye Norman. Leona Mitchell, Barbara Bonney, Sondra Radvanovsky, the mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, bass-baritone José van Dam, and the countertenor David Daniels, have talked about Price as an early inspiration.
Leontyne Price - Porgy and Bess - May 19, 1953
photo by Carl Van Vechten
Miles Davis, in Miles: The Autobiography, wrote: "Man, I love her as an artist. I love the way she sings Tosca. I wore out her recording of that, wore out two sets. Now, I might not do Tosca,
but I loved the way Leontyne did it. I used to wonder how she would
have sounded if she had sung jazz. She should be an inspiration for
every musician, black or white. I know she is to me."
In March 2007, on BBC Music Magazine's
list of the "20 All-time Best Sopranos" based on a poll of 21 British
music critics and BBC presenters, Leontyne Price was ranked fourth,
after, in order, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, and Victoria de los Ángeles.
vinyl LP record, side1
photo by Styrous®
vinyl LP record, side2
photo by Styrous®
Tracklist:
Side 1:
Act I
A1 - Si: Corre Voce; Celeste Aida
A2 - Ritorna Vincitor!
Act III
A3 - Qui Radamès Verrà!; O Patria Mia Ciel!; Mio Padre; Pur Ti Riveggo
Side 2:
B1 - Nel Fiero Anelito
Act IV
B2 - Già I Sacerdoti Adunansi
B3 - La Fatal Pietra
Credits:
Baritone Vocals – Robert Merrill
Bass Vocals – Giorgio Tozzi
Chorus – Rome Opera House Chorus*
Chorus Master – Giuseppe Conca
Composed By – Verdi*
Conductor – Georg Solti
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Rita Gorr
Orchestra – Rome Opera House Orchestra*
Soprano Vocals – Leontyne Price
Tenor Vocals – Jon Vickers
Notes:
——Cover info——
Includes a 12" book with info and notes in English and the complete libretto in Italian and English.
Selected by the Metropolitan Opera
© by Radio Corporation of America, 1962
Recorded in the Opera House, Rome, Italy
First performed at Cairo, Egypt, December 24, 1871
Italian-English Libretto: Translation © The Decca Record Company, Ltd., London
Performed in Italian
On jacket: LM-2616 is seen on front back and spine.
On labels: LM 2616 (notice: no "-" in code)
Track listings and credits taken from center labels.
Side 1:
Act I
A1 - Si: Corre Voce; Celeste Aida
A2 - Ritorna Vincitor!
Act III
A3 - Qui Radamès Verrà!; O Patria Mia Ciel!; Mio Padre; Pur Ti Riveggo
Side 2:
B1 - Nel Fiero Anelito
Act IV
B2 - Già I Sacerdoti Adunansi
B3 - La Fatal Pietra
Credits:
Baritone Vocals – Robert Merrill
Bass Vocals – Giorgio Tozzi
Chorus – Rome Opera House Chorus*
Chorus Master – Giuseppe Conca
Composed By – Verdi*
Conductor – Georg Solti
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Rita Gorr
Orchestra – Rome Opera House Orchestra*
Soprano Vocals – Leontyne Price
Tenor Vocals – Jon Vickers
Notes:
——Cover info——
Includes a 12" book with info and notes in English and the complete libretto in Italian and English.
Selected by the Metropolitan Opera
© by Radio Corporation of America, 1962
Recorded in the Opera House, Rome, Italy
First performed at Cairo, Egypt, December 24, 1871
Italian-English Libretto: Translation © The Decca Record Company, Ltd., London
Performed in Italian
On jacket: LM-2616 is seen on front back and spine.
On labels: LM 2616 (notice: no "-" in code)
Track listings and credits taken from center labels.
Verdi*, Price*, Vickers*, Gorr*, Merrill*, Tozzi*, Rome Opera House Orchestra* And Chorus*, Solti* – Aïda Highlights
Label: RCA Victor Red Seal – LM-2616, RCA Victor Red Seal – LM 2616
Format: Vinyl, LP, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1962
Genre: Classical, Stage & Screen
Style: Opera
Label: RCA Victor Red Seal – LM-2616, RCA Victor Red Seal – LM 2616
Format: Vinyl, LP, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1962
Genre: Classical, Stage & Screen
Style: Opera
Viewfinder link:
Leontyne Price articles/mentions
Net links:
NY Times ~ Legendary Diva, Is a Movie Star at 90
Classical MPR ~ Iconic soprano Leontyne Price turns 90
Found San Francisco ~ San Francisco Opera; Unfinished History
Found San Francisco ~ San Francisco Opera; Unfinished History
YouTube links:
Aida ~
Leontyne Price - O Patria Mia (1958)
Leontyne Price - Ritorna Vincitor (1966)
Act one, scene two: The Temple of Vulcane
Act two, scene two
Leontyne Price - Dialogues des Carmélites
Leontyne Price - Porgy & Bess -
Summertime (1968)
My Man's Gone Now (1968)
Leontyne Price selections
Aida ~
Leontyne Price - O Patria Mia (1958)
Leontyne Price - Ritorna Vincitor (1966)
Act one, scene two: The Temple of Vulcane
Act two, scene two
Leontyne Price - Dialogues des Carmélites
Leontyne Price - Porgy & Bess -
Summertime (1968)
My Man's Gone Now (1968)
Leontyne Price selections
Happy Birthday, Diva Divina
Styrous® ~ Sunday, February 18, 2018
~
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