Leontin Price biography

Outstanding American soprano, one of the most significant American opera singers of the 20th century. Leontina Price was born on February 10 in the town of Lorel, Mississippi.

From the age of five, she took piano lessons, and in adolescence she sang and played the piano with the choir of the local methodistic church. The wealthy white family, whose aunt price served as a laundress, and Price herself later worked as a maid and a nanny, encouraged her musical talents, and thanks to their financial assistance, Leontina Price managed to enter a Julian school in New York and get a scholarship.

In the year, the composer Virgil Thompson heard her and offered her a role in the production of his opera “Four Saints in three actions” on Broadway. Two weeks later, the performance went on tour to Paris, and there Price met Iira Gershvin, brother of George Gershwin, who invited her to sing Bess in the new production of Porgy and Bess. In the year, the Metro-Opera invited the Price to speak with their team at a charity concert, but she still had to become a full member of the troupe.

In the year, the NBC opera troupe invited the price to the title party to the telepostation of the Opera Toska. Later she performed in the television tests “Magic Flate”, “Dialogues of Carmelite” and “Don Zhuan”, becoming the first African American singer to perform the leading parties in such operas, albeit only on television. In the same year, Price heard Herbert von Karayan and was so impressed that he promised to personally promote her European career.

Over the next two years, the singer gave concerts, and on May 3, she performed the Aida party in the concert setting of the opera - this was her first performance of her most famous role. The first great success in the career of Price was the execution of the party of Madame Liduan at the American premiere of “Dialogues of Carmelite” in the opera of San Francisco in the year.

Two weeks later, she replaced the illness of Antonietta Stell in the Aida party, first sparing this role on the stage. The European debut of Price took place in the year in the Vienna Opera, again in the party of Aida under the leadership of Karayan. Soon after, the debuts followed in the London Royal Opera and in the arena of Dee Veron, also in the party of Aida. In the next season, the singer sang her first Leonor in Trubadur.

In the summer, she made her debut at the Salzburg festival, sang in the Trubadur in the arena of Dee Verona along with Franco Corelli and first performed the party Liu in Turandot. In the year, Price debuted in La Scala in the Aida Party-the first Afro-American Primedonna in this famous theater. In the year, Leontina Price and her colleague Franco Corelli was triumphantly debuted in the metro-Opera in the play “Trubadur”: the appliance after the performance did not stop for more than 35 minutes.

Price became the true star of the Metro-Opera, having performed more than 15 leading parties on the stage of this theater, mainly in Verdi's operas. Her European triumphs did not stop - everywhere its outstanding execution of parties of the Italian repertoire, especially Aida, Leonora in Trubadur and Elvira in Ernani, were noted. In the year, as part of the La Scala troupe, the singer toured in Moscow, sang Verdi under the control of Karayan in Requiem.

At the end of the x, the singer significantly reduced the number of performances, but she added to the repertoire such previously not characteristic parties for her as Ariadne in Ariadne on the Naksos. In the year, Price left the opera scene and for another 12 years acted as a chamber singer. Many operas with Leontina Price entered the Golden Fund of World Music; Eighteen of them received the Grammy Award.

The singer was awarded a mass of awards, including the presidential medal of freedom, spinarna medals, Emmy and Grammy Awards for a special many years of contribution to the recording industry. Introduced into the glory hall of Gramophone magazine.