Eldergays, tell me about Leontyne Price

"Lee" is still with us, in Maryland retirement community.

“"Lee" is still with us, in Maryland retirement community.”

Oh no! Aging has driven the Price down.

She lives!

Great, great star.

Favorite anecdote about her:

White woman in Bloomingdales to Leontyne Price in the early 70s: "Excuse me... but aren't you Marion Anderson?"

Leontyne Price: "No, honey... I'm Beverly Sills!"

Just collect as many recordings of hers that you can and you'll know all you need to know. One of the greatest voices of the 20th Century. Nobody today comes close. It must be something in the water.

I'm currently listening to her Christmas album.

1961

Lausche der Klange

Leontyne Price with the Philharmonic. Conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

My all time favorite opera singer!

According to opera lore, she got stuck in a pyramid on the opening night of [italic]Antony and Cleopatra[/italic] (1966) at the Met and freaked out on stage.

Her signature

She was no Kathleen Battle.

Why didn't they use her for Carmen Jones? She was quite photogenic.

I know her picture, her name and not much else. After reading OP's NYT article, now I LOVE HER! So refreshing to hear an artist who loves their own work and appreciates what they were able to achieve at that level. *Sends Kisses*

The greatest voice I've ever heard--live and on records.

Not only the sound of it but the way she uses it to express. Her gospel background really helps her present arias like no one else.

The Verdiana of her generation without doubt. Great in Puccini, Mozart, and Strauss too

I go to her recordings more than anyone elses.

Leontyne and Whitney Houston are related somehow. Cousins, I think

[quote] Why didn't they use her for Carmen Jones? She was quite photogenic.

No, Marilyn Horne dubbed the movie Carmen Jones

^ spoiled this thread

An absolute legend--not only for what she stood for (a barrier breaking Black opera singer) but a voice for the ages that has been preserved wonderfully on records

Classy and beautiful on WML, 1966.

I always say that her voice has kept me from going insane. Whenever I feel stressed, I listen to her albums and calm down. Such a glorious, velvety, smoky voice that conveys so much meaning.

r3, that's from 2017. She's 95 by now. Apparently she still does live--with her brother, a retired general, in Baltimore

Watch the excellent documentary The Opera House, about the creation of the new Metropolitan Opera House, which opened at Lincoln Center in 1966. Her story is a major part of the documentary, as General Manager Rudolf Bing gathered an All-American cast to open the new house with Sam Barber's new Antony and Cleopatra.

The opera was somewhat of a flop but, by all accounts, she Price was glorious, as a Barber wrote Cleopatra for Price's voice (much of it at her dinner table). She recorded to the two big Cleopatra arias (and, yes, she sounds amazing).

Note that Justino Diaz, the Puerto Rican baritone who just received a Kennedy Center Honor, was her Antony.

I never actually saw her in a live opera. i did see her sing some selections from Barber’s “Vanessa” at Tanglewood once and was BLOWN the FUCK away not even by her singing but by her presence on stage, the orchestra would rage and cavalcade through a climax and the way she stood there riveted you to the that spot in time, absolutely amazing performer and artist.

So many have been compared to her: Martina Arroyo, Leona Mitchell, Kiri TeKanawa, etc, but not one can match her.

I recall reading that a cellist at the MET tried to emulate the way she sung phrases in the way he played/

Verdi hasn't been the same since she retired from staged opera in 1995.

Hers was the last fully satisfying Aida. Leona Mitchell and Aprile Millo, just after her gave solid accounts. After that, the Aidas have just sucked--eastern european divas dominate with the metallic unsympathetic voices with no sense of vulnerablity. YUCK

It's mind boggling that there is no good published biography about her. She was such a trailblazer in so many ways.

For years, she said she was writing an autobiography, but nothing has come of it.

The gays have always loved Leontyne.

The only time I saw her live was at a recital she gave after she retired from the MET. I had loved her for years but lived too far away to see her perform. I was thrilled when she came to my town to give a recital.

I had a seat in the first row. The problem was her voice was so big and loud that it kept hitting my ear drums. It was so uncomfortable that I was actually happy when the recital ended. I did stay after the show to get her autograph--and she said, "My, what a handsome young man you are!" I still love that memory

Price singing her signature aria, O Patria Mia! from Aida during her televised farewell performance at the MET.

This includes the 4 minute ovation!

PBS watchers rank this as the greatest PBS moment ever

She's amazing in that video! I remember watching it live and in awe of how great she sounded, even at age 65 i believe. She handles the ovation like the true diva she is--trying to stay in character and then finally bowing her head, knowing this would be the last time she sings her greatest role.

Anna Deveare Smith interviewed her for "Twilight Los Angeles", and her brief moment in the play is stunning. (she was stuck in LA during the riots.) Talks about what the LA riots would sound like if they were set to music.

Whoops! What I said is pure bullshit. It was Jessye Norman interviewed for "Twilight Los Angeles". My bad.

A friend and I saw her in recital in Boston at Symphony Hall in the '90s. My friend would sometimes dress flamboyantly in those days and on that particular day he was wearing a big hoop earring in each ear. We met her backstage and she grabbed both of his earrings and said, "I'm crazy about these!"

Is there a book on her? Hopefully one comes out before she passes away.

OP, learn English.

Even Miss Price is not a "tour de force." Performances and tornadoes are tours de force.

I question whether she even was a "force of nature" "a force to be reckoned with."

And as far as declaring her to be "one of the first African Americans opera singers to be a star," please learn something about opera. Camilla Williams, Marian Anderson, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Sissieretta Jones, Caterina Jarboro, William Warfield, Todd Duncan, Anne Brown, and Lillian Evanti. among others. Their careers predated Miss Price's.

She did, of course, have a magnificent instrument that many enjoyed over the voices of others, and was the first woman of color to perform in a leading role in La Scala, being an enormous - historic - sensation. She has been inspirational and has had a commanding personality.

But to reduce her to the "first this" or the "first that" is, unfortunately, the tokenism of an unserious mind, an ignorant mind, or the sort of person who refers to posters here as "eldergays."

[quote] And as far as declaring her to be "one of the first African Americans opera singers to be a star," please learn something about opera. Camilla Williams, Marian Anderson, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Sissieretta Jones, Caterina Jarboro, William Warfield, Todd Duncan, Anne Brown, and Lillian Evanti. among others. Their careers predated Miss Price's.

Yes. they were stars, but none had the exposure and hit the heights of operatic superstardom that Price had. No, she was not the first black operatic star, but she the first black operatic superstar

[quote] Is there a book on her? Hopefully one comes out before she passes away.

Can you believe it--no, no professionally written biography of her exists. There is one written of the early days of her career by an amateur writer that's terribly edited, but it exists.

Being silly with Miss Sills

R38, comes across as a very fun person

Mary Opera Queen Miss R35 has stated her very firm boundaries!

While Price wasn’t the first black singer on the MET stage, she was the first to have a long sustained operatic career. Nearly every black opera singer (and many white ones too) credit her for inspiring them

I hear a biopic is in the works that would finally allow Julia Roberts to show off her singing voice.

In its 20 Greatest Sopranos Of All Time list, Classical Music magazine listed Price as number 4

R13 Her gospel roots show a bit when singing this spiritual, especially at 1:17, when her "ride on" sounds like a bassy "right on!"

Added bonus: The bouncy pianist and his devoted page-turner.

She want not particularly adventurous with repertoire. She stuck to the operas she excelled in and didn’t try new stuff. But when she excelled, she was among the best in the world.

I still love her recordings of Carmen, Butterfly, Verdi heroines in Trovatore, Aida, Ernani, Ballo, the most of any soprano

Where can we hear her at her best?

In which aria?

R44, she was accused to putting too much Aretha Franklin in opera, but that how she spiced up opera.

She knew exactly what to do to heighten dramatic effect when singing an aria. She always started low and slow and built up to a shattering conclusion

Beautiful, lush voice; WORST diction of any major singer, male or female. Can’t understand a word she sings; she just makes beautiful sounds.

R46, her stunning upper register is displayed in this Doretta’s song—she never sang the role on stage but sang this aria a lot in concert

R48, her diction in English arias however was excellent and crisp

R49 Puccini was a genius. I know people gripe about him suggesting this song was just like chocolate.

This aria from Puccini’s Edgar will blow you away, especially as the ramps up the sound and urgency at the very end

Her BLACKGLAMA ad is beyond bewitching…..if I knew how to post photos here. I would post it

Dramatic urgency in Strauss’ Egyptian Helen

The subject of one of my favorite Sondheim rhymes:

"We'll get Leontyne Price to sing her

Medley from Meistersinger"

(From "Bobby and Jackie and Jack," -- "Merrily We Roll Along.")

NO ONE sings Verdi’s Pace Mio Dio (from La Forza) like Price!

Price came along at that short time when opera singers were part of the popular culture. She,Beverly Sills, Roberta Peters, Joan Sutherland, etc, were all household names

[quote] ramps up the sound and urgency at the very end

Puccini was superb at building to a climax.

Here’s a funny story I have about Price.

Growing up, there was a nice black family who lived in the neighborhood, I was good friends with the kids and we’d hang out at each other’s houses a lot, the grandma lived with them and was a little demented.

Every time a Black female singer showed up on TV, no matter what she was singing, the grandma would yell out “Is that Leontyne Price”??!!

[Quote]Her BLACKGLAMA ad is beyond bewitching…..if I knew how to post photos here. I would post it

Here you are, r53.

R58, you are right and Price was expert at displaying it for what it was worth (again, that gospel background). I would be surprised whenever other singers would just sing the arias limply without taking advantage of the support Puccini provided.

R56, that last Maledizione! Is everything! I wonder how it’s actually written because some singers put it in to great dramatic effects while others don’t,

[quote] She,Beverly Sills, Roberta Peters, Joan Sutherland, etc, were all household names

R57 Are you saying that because they appeared on The Dinah Shore TV Show?

r6 / OP That was my mother's favorite Christmas album, Leontyne and HVK.

R63 that was because of The Bell Telephone Hour and Ed Sullivan.

UNCF! JUST a HAND!!!

R66, forgot about the great commercial!! I would try to imitate it all the time.

I believe if you were a gaybee in the eighties you had to

Weren’t there rumors of lesbianism? (Yes, she was once married to a man). Similar rumors that Tebaldi faced

she makes the lez-lez only on friday nights

Yes, R69, at the Datalounge. Though I wouldn't doubt it.

Did she run with Ann B. Davis?

The Opera House is a great documentary...

^

It was criminal they tore down the old Met. I understand they needed new facilities but it was the most beautiful theater in Manhattan and they could have repurposed it. This was the time they tore down the old Penn Station one of the most magnificent buildings in the country.

Bing wanted it torn down because powerful real estate brokers wanted the land and his job depended on it. He would have been fired if it didn't come down. The new house is nice but cold and considering how budget conscious new productions are the extraordinary technical capablities of the house go to waste.

While it was apparently a beautiful theatre, it wasn't a practical theatre--a large portion of seats were partial view, the seats on the rafters with wood without cushions, there is little to no proper backstage space

Still, there's no excuse for replacing it with a Wallace Harrison marble mausoleum instead of another beautiful theater.

R77, sadly, after selling it, the MET had no say in what it became.

The seats could easily have been restored and partial view eliminated. Tiny backstage areas cause no problems for exceedingly old Broadway theaters and as a concert hall or for dance companies this would not have been an insurmountable problem. NY has lost its 2 most beautiful theaters the Met and Mark Hellinger. Nederlander should have gotten a life sentence.

Price also sang some gorgeous gospel.

Here she is singing "Let Us Break Bread Together"

She called herself a troubadour for American music.

Listen to Price sing "Give me my robe" from Barber's Antony and Cleopatra

r34 is hissing louder and more menacingly than the Snake House at the zoo!

*Sorry, r34: I meant r35, not you!

She really did have "the voice of the age," as my old teacher used to call it.

Her recording of Barber’s Hermit Songs makes great winter listening.

She was preserved on video in just two complete roles, both live Met telecasts, "Forza" in 1984 and her Met farewell "Aida" in 1985. The "Forza" has long been available on VHS/DVD, but for some reason the famous "Aida" has never been commercially released. It is available to view if you subscribe to Met on Demand, and was shown for free during the Met's nightly free telecasts throughout the covid shutdown.

Married- 1952

Separated- 1967

Divorced- 1973

There’s a wonderful video of Karajan conducting the Verdi Requiem where Price is the soprano soloist. Check out her entrance at the 6:00 mark.

As a kid my parents used to always buy those department stores-sold, annual "A Very Merry Christmas" album series, including one a certain year that had Price's version of "Ave Maria." Still my favorite recorded rendition of it, she is amazing and reminds me of childhood Christmastime whenever I find and hear it again this time of year.

And your point is, R87?

Merry Christmas, r89...

I dunno, r90. I noticed the title of the thread was *Eldergays, tell me about Leontyne Price* and I thought I'd add some biographical information to...you know...tell the OP something about Leontyne Price. Call me crazy.

I accept you, R87.

What other record would feature not only Leontyne, but *also* Miss Lana Cantrell!

A voice that you can pick out within seconds of hearing it—the mark of a legend

Wouldn’t it be amazing to have great composers write for your voice? Barber wrote Antony and Cleopatra for her and Hoiby wrote ‘Songs for Leontyne’

It's about having a *sound*, r95.

[quote] Where can we hear her at her best?

I know most people worship Callas, but Price’s glorious Tosca with Karajan and the WPO is my imprint.

I love her recording of Barber’s Knoxville: Summer 1915.

I swear this is one of the gayest songs I know.

R98, wow, her voice just soars

R99, I detest the sound of Callas' voice (There! I said it). Everything sounds like Lady Macbeth to me whenever Callas sings it.

The Price Tosca, Carmen, Butterfly are my go-to's over Callas' classic portrayals.

Price sings What I Did for Love from A Chorus Line

She does a good jobs but it's hilarious hearing it sung operatically

Always best in Verdi. A couple of notches down on Puccini.

I bought everything she recorded- in two box sets. The most glorious female voice in opera of all time- big, rich sound and always staying true to the musical line. Find her interview at the 50 year anniversary be of the Met. Her energy, her humor and infectious love of life and music is life-affirming.

she sounds much more southern now

Yes, she did have that weird half British accent thing that Black female singers do: Tina Turner, Jessye Norman, etc.--but Price's also included a bot of Southern twang.

Norman REALLY cranked up the odd accent, I believe she was more polyglot than price, that could have been a factor.

R103. Yes and no. I think every major soprano has at least one definitive recording that no one else can touch.

Callas has Norma and Madama Butterfly.

Price is Aida and Giulio Cesare

Sutherland has Lucia di Lammermoor and that La Traviata recording with Pavarotti

Schwarzkopf's best is Der Rosenkavalier and all things Strauss.

Montserrat has Turnadot

te Kawana has the divine recording of O mio babbino Caro from Gianni Schicchi

What recording of Giulio Cesare are you talking about? Perhaps an aria she sang in recital? I only have a live Tu la mia stella sei. As far as I know she sang none of the role in a commercial recording though I would like to find out she did sing some arias. Beverly Sills became very famous for her role of Cleopatra in the NYC Opera production of the opera which was recorded by RCA. It's a wonderful recording except for a fair amount of cuts. Treigle and Forrester are magnificent as well on it. None of them have been surpassed.

The silliest singing of a popular song by an opera singer that I've heard is Marilyn Horne singing People on The Odd Couple. Horne is a magnificent singer but it sounds ridiculous.

Price, I believe, sang in Giulio Cesare very early in her career but there is no recording. R110 must mean a specific aria.

It's also odd to rank Caballe's Turandot (live or studio) as most definitive than Sutherland's recording. I'd rank Nilsson's live Turandots the best but don't like how she sounds on records

R108, Angela Bassett has that weird accent too

[quote] Always best in Verdi. A couple of notches down on Puccini.

Price only performed a specific group of Verdi--Ernani, Trovatore, La Forza, Aida, Ballo--and yes, she was definitive in each.

I wish she had recording or performed in Otello and Don Carlo--but her recorded arias are gorgeous. Although she didn't sing the coloratura Verdi role, Price recorded a great Caro Nome from Rigoletto (the final note is insane).

She didn't have the dramatic bite to challenge the greatest Puccini divas, but she gave them a run for their money. Her recorded Tosca and Butterfly are stunning (as were, from many reports, her staged versions). Same with Liu. She also recorded a great, atmospheric Il Tabarro, based on the production she did in San Francisco.

Infamously, she had to drop out mid performance during Girl of the Golden West, likely because of vocal fatigue from an insane schedule. That said, the reviews from the first performance were glowing--although I can't, for the life of me, understand her in that role.

She refused to sing in Otello for whatever reason though she would have been magnificent in it. One of the great might have beens in opera was the fact that Corelli and Price could have at least recorded the opera with Karajan or Solti and it could have been one of the outstanding opera recordings of all time. Corelli was afraid of the role but the excerpts we have of him in it he's magnificent. He said later in life he should have done it. If not on stage at least in the studio as Sutherland did with Turandot.

How nice to read a thread with knowledgeable folk and only a few idiots. I love the Previn album; one of the few "crossover" recordings where the opera singer doesn't condescend to the songs. And the arrangements are deluxe. Agree about the Knoxville Summer of 1915. And so many other records: her Prima Donna albums are supreme; her O Holy Night is transcendent; and her Porgy and Bess selections (with her ex-husband) is my favorite, since she sings all the female roles! Thanks for starting this, OP. Proud to be an eldergay if it means having lived through her greatest years.

Leontyne hawking Fashion Fair Cosmetics

Check your TV schedule...

J'adore her in Julia.

R119, have never seen that!!

I have the box set of her non opera albums and I was surprised at how much I liked Right as Rain. I usually don't like crossover as it can sound exaggerated. I hope I can find her Christmas album with Karajan in my piles of cds before the holiday!

[quote] She refused to sing in Otello for whatever reason though she would have been magnificent in it.

From what I understand, she was supposed to sing in the recording with Domingo but Domingo used his power to get Price off the recording and insert Scotto. While I usually enjoy Scotto, she sounds matronly as Desdemona on it.

She sang with Domingo on recordings a number of times so that's surprising. As well who would want to hear Scotto over Price?

Price recordings a lush, emotional experiences. Scotto is excellent with drama, but sometimes I don't need my hair to stand up on end

For r122…when EBONY Magazine launched their cosmetics line, they used several prominent black women to promote their products. I think that my mom knew that I was gay because I would take all of the EBONY magazines and open them up to the Fashion Fair ads and spread them out on the living room floor. Parents were NOT happy.

The only Scotto recording I keep going back to the Nabucco, the one she sounds most squally. The screaming make the most sense on that one.

Eileen could successfully cross over...

Yes Eileen was terrific but one of the very few.

I've avoided that Nabucco but you make me now want to hear it.

1980 Kennedy Center Honors recipients: James Cagney, Leontyne Price, Leonard Bernstein, Lynn Fontanne and Agnes de Mille.

R131, you should definitely listen to it. Scotto is dramatically in the moment, as always. It shreds her voice as she's singing it, but it's glorious.

r132, Where's LL Cool Jay?

Now *that* was a line-up, r132.

Cleo

Didn’t Placido and Leontyne get along?

They must have as they sang so many recordings together--including one of the most beautiful duets albums ever recorded. I guess Domingo thought he wanted someone more dramatically alive for the Otello--who knows.

R98 That was sublime.

I will always love her for coming out of retirement on Sept 30, 2001, after Sept 11, to sing two songs at a Remembrance Concert at Carnegie Hall. Tickets were free and we lined up that morning to get them at the box office.

She sang This Little Light of Mine and American the Beautiful. She was in her 70's but those high notes were there, as solid and powerful as ever. Her songs FINALLY made me feel that everything would be ok.

I thought she sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Maybe that was a different concert?

[quote] it sounds ridiculous.

And it's vulgar. Marilyn and other genuine opera stars should stay in their own genre.

R140, I stand corrected. Both Wikipedia and a review in the NY Times say she sang This Little Light of Mine and America the Beautiful.

Towards the end everytime Scotto sang it was like she was shredding her voice and there was nothing left. Yet at the next performance she'd do it all over again sounding exactly the same. I listened to her last Met performance or at least it was her last matinee Texaco performance where she sang Butterfly. It was the same shredded painful to listen to voice but she was as dramatically compelling as ever.

I agree many if not most opera singers fare poorly at crossover singing but Eileen Ferrell and Dawn Upshaw were notable exceptions.

^

Was she as shredded as Callas?

Kiri also had a good crossover album. She doesn't sing at all operatically

Scotto still had a major career long after her voice was in tatters because James Levine adored her sense of Italianate style and her idiomatic way of singing the big showy Italian diva roles. In that he was right. But in ignoring her vocal problems he was wrong.

Getting off topic, but here's Eileen Ferrell, Marilyn Horne and Carol Burnett singing Hey, Big Spender on Carol's variety show.

[quote] Marilyn Horne and Carol Burnett

Cringing, vulgar, tacky.

A big thanks to the OP for starting this thread, I have enjoyed listening to her music clips and viewing her pictures from fashion fair, she has a beautiful voice and face.

at 74...

Queen!

Who is the next Price or Norman?

Op R110: Schwartzkopf is magnificent with Mozart

R154 No one. That's it. Forever.

The world has changed too much for those gifts to be nurtured and to grow. And there is no longer the audience. Look at NY. It is down to one main opera company and it gives only about half the number of performances per season as it once gave. It is closed for the entire month of February. That's very bad. And it was this way before covid.

I was just looking at her discography on Amazon. She was an amazingly prolific recording artist

R156, I truly believe opera will die within a generation or two. The younger generation just doesn’t feel any connection to opera whatsoever. The opera world has done little to cultivate younger audiences

R156, R158. I am not so pessimistic. I know a lot of gaylings that are into opera.

[quote]She didn't have the dramatic bite to challenge the greatest Puccini divas, but she gave them a run for their money.

I completely agree. She is brilliant with Verdi but not quite there with Puccini.

Who wrote that list R43? Ponselle at 19? Flagstad out of the top 3? What a waste of ink.

bitches are gonna bitch

Nope it's dying. All you have to do is look at ticket sales in the US. You can ignore it all you want to but it doesn't change a thing. The NY City Opera is dead as a doornail. There used to be such a thing called 'popular prices,' which I'm sure you never heard of, which were touted as the pricing of the City Opera and the City Ballet- the regular NYers arts companies. And the Met is hanging on by a thread. As opposed to the completely insane amounts of money people pay for pop concerts and sporting events. You don't even have the donors you once did who supported the arts. Their billionaire tech fortunes go for god knows what but it sure isn't for the arts the way millionaires used to support them when I was a kid. I could go several times a week and on a book store clerk's salary and I would see the greatest artists in the world. Now those artists don't even exist. Yeah some are really good but I know of none who transport you the way they once did where you left the theater in a daze of disbelief. I was in those audiences who wouldn't let artists go home and the ovations would go on and on. And just scrambling for a ticket was a major endeavor and it would get to the point where you were desperate to be anywhere in the house you just needed to get in and a partial view was a golden ticket. Yes the excitement was extraordinary.

I share your concerns R163. In New York, the older (mostly Jewish) audience that was supporting the Met is dying off or was too scared by COVID. In Vienna, the State Opera is doing OK. It’s subsidized, of course. But I believe Opera will come back. It’s too good. Maybe I am whistling in the dark..

I know a lot of younger professionals who enjoy opera. Doctors, lawyers, stock brokers, CPA's, dentists, etc.

Most young people whom I know go to the opera tend to go to the La Bohemes and Carmens in the Park-type events. I did see alot at The MET's Akhenaten. I'm not sure this is translating into general opera going.

[quote] She is brilliant with Verdi but not quite there with Puccini.

Sometimes you just want to lay back and hear a gorgeous voice wash over you. This is exactly what Price provides. Do I need every dramatic insight displayed in vivid color constantly--NO. Price does enough.

Going to the opera is too much. It’s too intense. I want to see a show that has some operatic elements, but 3 straight hours of listening to that type of intense singing and constant emotional turmoil is an assault on the senses. I can’t handle it. I do enjoy listening to an occasional aria here and there.

“She is brilliant with Verdi but not quite there with Puccini.”

This is over my head, can someone explain?

I went to see Denyce Graves in [italic]Cosi von Tutti[/italic] (sp?) , back in the 90’s. At a theater in Philadelphia, nosebleed seats. I was so uncomfortable sitting with the wooden railing pressing into my knees I had to leave. And at that distance it was impossible to follow the story.

cost fan tutte

Cosi is a small opera. Even the Met is too big for it. How I would have loved for some of the houses on 42nd Street to have been converted to present some of the operas with smaller casts along with some operetta and Gilbert and Sullivan.

I was watching this episode of American Pickers (circa 2014) at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, CO. Apparently they were going to tear it down for a parking lot before these people got it but they were worried about saving it. It was built in 1879. I've seen a few things at the Central City Opera House (also CO) and it was built in 1878. Those mining towns in the Rockies had to have an opera house to show they had culture.

[quote] In New York, the older (mostly Jewish) audience that was supporting the Met is dying off or was too scared by COVID.

They went to Florida. Then they died.

R168, this is why I sometimes wish they would just show “highlights of the opera.” Three hours can drone

R169, Verdi has some very jagged lines that ultimate form an arc of sound—it requires an special ability to navigate that by having the right notes, volume, and ability to breathe properly. Puccini demands stronger pressure on the vocal cords to express drama and emotion.

Has Shakespeare waned at all?

To add my two cents to R176, Verdi and Puccini are from different eras and their associated styles suit different voices. I find Verdi quite dynamic and his scores tend to provide a lot of direction to the singer, so a fabulous vocal instrument is well supported in interpretation. Puccini is a lot freer and more subtle so the singer has to bring in a lot of passion and emotion to really shine. Price is great in both, but much better in Verdi. I much prefer Callas in Puccini.

Shakespearean acting needs years of classical training a classically trained singer comparably goes through and which most actors who attempt it don't have which makes it agony to sit through. The words turn to ash in their mouths. I gave up on it a long time ago and the only great production I've seen of a Shakespeare play was Ingmar Bergman's The Winter's Tale out in Brooklyn.

r173 I don't think the use of the name "opera house" necessarily indicates they featured opera performances on a regular basis. It seems to me that it was just a generic term for a theater nad was perhaps used because it sounded "classy."

I didn't mean to suggest otherwise, r180.

R179 I agree, but the greats are untouchable. Instead of Callas, Pavarotti, Domingo, and Price you have Mirren, Olivier, Gielgud, and Smith.

Back in the '60s a music teacher at my school came back from a trip to New York just raving over this brilliant new soprano he'd heard at the Met. He said to remember her name because he was sure she would become very famous: LAY-on-TEE-neh PREE-cheh, with a rolled "r."

This must have been the very early 60s because she made a sensation at her Met debut in January of '61. It was in the same performance of the great Italian tenor Franco Corelli's Met debut. She stole the performance and I believe he said something to the effect that he never wanted to sing with her again. Of course they sang together again and a friend swears by their recording of Carmen which he considers one of the greats.

Years before her Met debut, Price had been seen nationally in the title role of NBC Opera's "Tosca" in 1955. A kinescope of this performance exists.

Yes, she was well known in musical circles and made a lot of TV appearances in the late 50s and early 60s. But she didn't become a household name until she started singing at the Met with the attention that brought.

I believe she and Corelli still hold the MET applause record at 42 minutes after their 1962 joint debut in Il Trovatore.

R184, I’d never heard that Corelli didn’t want to sing. with Price after the success. I did hear of his rivalry with Brigit Nilsson and that he refused to sing after she held the climactic note in Turandot longer than him. The MET general manager had to go backstage and caress his ego to get him to return for the next act

With the right conductors, Price did some admirable work with dramatic roles—Karajan really brought the best out with her superlative Tosca and Carmen.

Most Verdi doesn’t require that kind of snarling drama. Verdi relies more on broad emotions and Price is extremely good at turning on whatever vocal color is needed.

I love her vocal phrases—How long she holds notes, where she takes breaths.

Listen to her O Patria Mia from the televised MET Aida. The phrasing is just extraordinary—crisp, direct

In 1962 Leontyne bought a three-story town house at 9 Van Dam Street. There until she moved to Maryland. House was sold in 2013,

It was in that house, on her kitchen table, that Barber wrote much of Antony and Cleopatra

Her AIDA in 1985 is probably one of the best recorded operas of all time.

Extravagance and beauty

LEONTYNE PRICE is AIDA

Conducted by James Levine

Also starring James McCracken, Fiorenza Cossotto, John Macurdy, and Simon Estes

Directed by John Dexter