Leontyne Price
The daughter of a carpenter and a midwife, African-American soprano Leontyne Price (born Mary Violet) studied piano and singing with the assistance of a local family that recognized her innate talents. After earning her degree from College of Education and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce, OH (where she studied with Catherine Van Buren), Price was awarded a scholarship to attend the Juilliard School of Music where she continued vocal training with Florence Page Kimball. Upon hearing her there, Virgil Thomson invited her to sing Saint Cecilia in the 1952 revival of his Four Saints in Three Acts. She then toured the United States and Europe as Bess in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1952-1955); on this tour she met and married bass-baritone William Warfield who was singing the role of Porgy.
In October 1953, Price sang the premiere of Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and she gave her first New York recital in November 1954; in December of the same year she sang Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her appearances in Tosca, Die Zauberflöte, Dialogues des Carmelites, and Don Giovanni on television brought her to wide attention for both her outstanding singing, and for being the first African American leading soprano of note.
In the following seasons, she made her debuts at San Francisco, Chicago, Vienna, London, and Milan. This culminated in her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House as Leonore in Il trovatore, an evening that garnered a front page review in The New York Times. The Metropolitan would soon become her favored opera house; she sang most of her wide repertoire there, including Aida, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Leonore in La Forza del Destino, Ernani, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Fiorgiligi (Così), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin. She sang her last operatic performance there in 1985 as Aida.
Price was known as much for her concert and recital appearances as for those in opera. Besides performances of common repertory works, such as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and the Verdi Requiem, she also undertook Honegger's rather obscure Jeanne d'Arc (with the New York Philharmonic) and Bruckner's Te Deum (at Salzburg). Her solo concerts often featured lesser-known arias and excerpts, including the "Awakening of Helen" from Strauss' Egyptian Helen, selections from Barber's Anthony and Cleopatra and The Songs of the Rose of Sharon by John La Montaine.
She gave annual recitals throughout North America and was also heard regularly in Europe, being a special favorite at the Salzburg Festival. Her recital repertoire was extensive, ranging from the songs of Poulenc, Hahn, and Marx, to traditional spirituals; her final encore was often "This little light of mine" -- one of her mother's favorite pieces.
Leontyne Price's voice was a spinto soprano of great beauty. She had a wonderful feeling for the sweep of the long phrases of Verdi and her technique allowed her to encompass all of the difficulties of Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Elvira (Ernani). Her lower register had a quality often described as "dusky" which many listeners found quite sensual. Most of her important operatic roles were recorded by RCA, but only a small fraction of her recital repertoire found its way onto disc. Leontyne Price will always be remembered as one of the greatest Verdi sopranos of the twentieth century.
© TiVo
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Puccini: Tosca by Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price, Herbert von Karajan, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Opera - Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording 発売日 2022/11/08
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Requiem/Quattro Pezzi Sacri
Classical - Decca Music Group Ltd. 発売日 2000/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leontyne Price: Personal Choice (2024 Remastered Edition)
Classical - Musical Concepts 発売日 1960/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Tosca
Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Giuseppe Taddei, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Classical - Decca Music Group Ltd. 発売日 1963/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (Live)
William Warfield, Leontyne Price, Cab Calloway, RIAS-Unterhaltungsorchester, Alexander Smallens
Opera - audite Musikproduktion 発売日 2008/11/19
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Il Trovatore (2 CDs)
Classical - Deutsche Grammophon (DG) 発売日 1995/01/01
Qobuz厳選のディスコグラフィ16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas With Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Pop - Decca Music Group Ltd. 発売日 2012/11/02
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Ultimate Christmas Album
Dame Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa, Leontyne Price, Luciano Pavarotti
Classical - Decca - London 発売日 1995/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi : Aida
Leontyne Price, Jon Vickers, Robert Merrill, Coro del Teatro dell' Opera di Roma, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Decca Music Group Ltd. 発売日 1962/04/01
Qobuz厳選のディスコグラフィ16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R. Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Leontyne Price, Tatiana Troyanos, Edita Gruberova, René Kollo, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Decca Music Group Ltd. 発売日 1979/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi · aida
Leontyne Price, Jon Vickers, Sir Georg Solti, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Classical - G.O.P. 発売日 2022/04/08
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta
Classical - Decca Music Group Ltd. 発売日 1981/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Singers of the Century: Leontyne Price – Spiritual and Religious Songs (Remasterd 2016)
Leontyne Price, Leonard de Paur, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Studio chorus, Herbert von Karajan, Unknown Artist
Classical - Jube Classic 発売日 2016/06/03
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Turandot (Recorded Live 1961)
Opera - Urania Records 発売日 1966/01/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Mozart: Don Juan, extraits (Mono Version)
Cesare Siepi, Leontyne Price, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf
Miscellaneous - BNF Collection 発売日 1961/01/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Récital Verdi & Puccini (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - BNF Collection 発売日 1961/01/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi & Puccini: Arias (Stereo Version)
Opera - BNF Collection 発売日 1960/01/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini · madama butterfly
Leontyne Price, Richard Tucker, Erich Leinsdorf, Orchestra Dell'Opera Di Roma
Classical - G.O.P. 発売日 2023/01/31
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo