In a misguided AIDA in Newark, the Tenor left the stage in Act !, after he begged Alfredo Silipigni to stop conducting the opera. It was a long haul---and a relief when he was entombed w/Aida in the Finale.
Thank you for this. What a treat. A decades-long favourite and I was just contemplating that octave (+/-) jump as I work on an arrangement of The Trees on the Mountain, another fave from Susannah
I came to opera late (in college when I started taking voice lessons) in the early 1980s. So I was learning about opera at the height of the careers of several great singers, and at the end of some others, Price one of them. I can still remember going home from school and telling family that I was commandeering the television/radio for the simulcast (remember those?) of her final performance of Aida at the Met (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-01-05-ca-11655-story.html). What. An. Incredible. Evening. I still remember it 30+ years later (go to Google and start typing "leontyne price last" and "at the Met" is the second suggest search - it's still that frequently searched for) the thunderous final curtain (according to that LATimes articel 25 minutes in length).
In my mind she is our greatest Aida. I was also privileged to hear her in concert when I was in grad school at Florida State a few years later. The world has changed, and opera no less than other things, and I think "diva" is not a way we talk any longer about great singers (modern media, television, video, social media give us singers less remote than when their appearances were more rare and wonderous events). I mean diva in this sense: derived from the Italian noun diva, a female deity. The word once carried a sense of ability and bearing and it went beyond singing on a stage. Leontyne Price carried herself with an understanding of her ability, her place in the history of opera as a singer and a woman of color.
The Glenn Winters comments are terrific by the way. Warms my Music Theory heart.
I couldn't agree more - the greatest Aida. The more I read, watch and listen to Leontyne, the more I love her. Her Leonora (Trovatore), Elvira (Ernani), Tosca....magical! Thank you for sharing these memories...
And Forza del Destino and Don Carlos!! She really was the greatest Verdian of the last half of the 20th century (though not Traviata or Rigoletto -- a different kind of voice, a voice other than her voice, is needed for those roles). Let's say Middle-Period Verdi, perhaps? Oddly, a Google search finds only ONE recording of Otello (https://www.abebooks.com/Giuseppe-Verdi-Otello-2-Audio-CDs/30929068278/bd) though she recorded the Ave Maria multiple times (but then, she also recorded the Liebestod [cp. the Aria film soundtrack!], so that's a glorious thing). At one time Aprille Millo was her successor, and I remember hearing some very lovely Met broadcasts with Millo in title roles, then she sort of disappeared, sad to say.
In a misguided AIDA in Newark, the Tenor left the stage in Act !, after he begged Alfredo Silipigni to stop conducting the opera. It was a long haul---and a relief when he was entombed w/Aida in the Finale.
Playing Aida you understand what a great genius Verdi was. You can play it twice a week for years, and it’s still magic every night.
✨✨✨
Thank you for this. What a treat. A decades-long favourite and I was just contemplating that octave (+/-) jump as I work on an arrangement of The Trees on the Mountain, another fave from Susannah
Awesome! I just put all of these pattens together myself!
Such a great piece - I loved singing that one :-)
Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼
I came to opera late (in college when I started taking voice lessons) in the early 1980s. So I was learning about opera at the height of the careers of several great singers, and at the end of some others, Price one of them. I can still remember going home from school and telling family that I was commandeering the television/radio for the simulcast (remember those?) of her final performance of Aida at the Met (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-01-05-ca-11655-story.html). What. An. Incredible. Evening. I still remember it 30+ years later (go to Google and start typing "leontyne price last" and "at the Met" is the second suggest search - it's still that frequently searched for) the thunderous final curtain (according to that LATimes articel 25 minutes in length).
In my mind she is our greatest Aida. I was also privileged to hear her in concert when I was in grad school at Florida State a few years later. The world has changed, and opera no less than other things, and I think "diva" is not a way we talk any longer about great singers (modern media, television, video, social media give us singers less remote than when their appearances were more rare and wonderous events). I mean diva in this sense: derived from the Italian noun diva, a female deity. The word once carried a sense of ability and bearing and it went beyond singing on a stage. Leontyne Price carried herself with an understanding of her ability, her place in the history of opera as a singer and a woman of color.
The Glenn Winters comments are terrific by the way. Warms my Music Theory heart.
I couldn't agree more - the greatest Aida. The more I read, watch and listen to Leontyne, the more I love her. Her Leonora (Trovatore), Elvira (Ernani), Tosca....magical! Thank you for sharing these memories...
And Forza del Destino and Don Carlos!! She really was the greatest Verdian of the last half of the 20th century (though not Traviata or Rigoletto -- a different kind of voice, a voice other than her voice, is needed for those roles). Let's say Middle-Period Verdi, perhaps? Oddly, a Google search finds only ONE recording of Otello (https://www.abebooks.com/Giuseppe-Verdi-Otello-2-Audio-CDs/30929068278/bd) though she recorded the Ave Maria multiple times (but then, she also recorded the Liebestod [cp. the Aria film soundtrack!], so that's a glorious thing). At one time Aprille Millo was her successor, and I remember hearing some very lovely Met broadcasts with Millo in title roles, then she sort of disappeared, sad to say.