Leontyne Price #1484
$ 8.00
Caption from poster__
Leontyne Price
“ Accomplishments have no color”
Leontyne Price debuted on Broadway in 1952
and at the Metropolitan Opera House in
New York in 1961. As an African American
woman, Leontyne Price achieved many
“ first” in her musical career.
A native of Laurel, Mississippi, Mary Violet Leontyne Price decided on a
singing career after graduation from the College of Education and Industrial
Arts, Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1948.Four years at the Juillard School of Music,
with Florence Page Kimball guiding her as she would continue to do, led to
her 1952 debut on Broadway. Ira Gershwin, based on that performance,
chose Price as Bess in a revival of Porgy and Bess that played New
York City 1952-54 and then toured both nationally and internationally. In
1955, Leontyne Price was chosen to sing the title role in a television
production of Tosca,becoming the first black singer on a television opera
production. In 1957, she debuted in her first stage opera, the American
premier of Dialogues of the Carmelites by Poulenc. She performed in
San Francisco until 1960, appearing in Vienna in 1959 and Milan in 1960.
Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1961 was as
Leonora in Il Trovatore.Quickly becoming a leading soprano there, Leontyne
Price made the Met her primary base until her retirement in 1985. After her
retirement she continued to give recitals. Associated especially with Verdi
and Barber, Leontyne Price sang the role of Cleopatra, which Barber created
for her, at the opening of the new Lincoln Center home for the Met. She also
performed at recitals, especially in the 1970s, and was prolific in her recordings.
