Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927 in Laurel , Mississippi ) is an American concert and opera singer ( soprano ). She was the first "black diva" in the international concert and opera business.
Life
Born as the daughter of a carpenter and a midwife in the southern United States, Leontyne Price began studying music very early. She received piano lessons and sang at St. Paul Methodist Church in Laurel. She later studied music education at the College of Educational and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce . After graduation, she went to New York and was accepted at the famous Juilliard School of Music in New York, where she studied singing with Florence Ward Kimball . Her first opera role was Mistress Ford in Verdi's Falstaff in a university production.
This was later followed by an engagement in a Broadway production of Porgy and Bess , with which she toured around the world from 1952. Her partner William Warfield (1920–2002), who sang the Porgy, also briefly became her husband. They separated again in 1967, but the marriage was not divorced until 1973.
In the 1950s, Leontyne Price made a number of appearances on opera and concert stages and on television in the United States. Her international breakthrough came in Europe: in 1958 she made her debut under Herbert von Karajan in the title role of Aida at the Vienna State Opera , and a year later at Covent Garden London. She remained connected to Herbert von Karajan for many years: At the Salzburg Festival , Leontyne Price performed under his direction as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (1960/61) and as Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore (1962/63), who sang Leonora Price also at the Salzburg Easter Festival (1977). In this role - and again under Karajan's direction - she also said goodbye to the Vienna State Opera (1977).
Leontyne Price was the first black man to sing a leading role (Aida) at La Scala in Milan on May 21, 1960 .
In 1961 she celebrated a great success at the New York Metropolitan Opera with her debut as Leonore in Verdi's Il trovatore and received 42 minutes of standing ovation. From then on she was one of the most important singers in the house for over 20 years. The best known was her interpretation of Aida, with which she celebrated her departure from the stage in 1985.
In addition to the great Mozart and Verdi roles, Price's repertoire also included numerous concert roles. In addition to many other awards, she received 15 Grammy Awards for her recordings.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Leontyne Price appeared in Carnegie Hall for the last time in a benefit concert. She lives in New York's Greenwich Village . In 1962 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 2012 she became an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .
literature
- KJ Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Unchanged edition. KG Saur, Bern 1993, ISBN 3-907820-70-3 , second volume M – Z, Sp. 2364 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Leontyne Price's appearances at the Vienna State Opera
- ↑ Honorary Members. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed January 12, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Price, Leontyne |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Price, Mary Violet Leontyne (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American concert and opera singer (soprano) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Laurel , Mississippi |