Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price ( born Mary Violet Leontine Price February 10, 1927) is an American spinto soprano who was the first African-American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera. She regularly appeared at the world's major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and La Scala. She was particularly renowned for her performances of the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Aida''.

Born in Laurel, Mississippi, Price studied music at Wilberforce University in Ohio where she began her undergraduate education in the fall 1944 semester as a student in the College of Education and Industrial Arts. Internal conflicts within Wilberforce's administration led the College of Education and Industrial Arts to break from Wilberforce University in June 1947 just before Price began her senior year at the school. It became a separate college known as the State College of Education and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce (now known as Central State University), and she graduated from this institution in June 1948 with a degree in vocal performance. She pursued further studies at the Juilliard School from 1948 until 1952. At Juilliard she was a pupil of Florence Kimball, and continued to routinely study with Kimball privately until Kimball's death in 1977.

Price's first significant professional engagement was in Virgil Thomson's '' Four Saints in Three Acts'', prior to embarking on her debut tour; she also starred (alongside her husband William Warfield) in a successful revival of Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess''. Numerous concert performances followed, including a recital at the Library of Congress with composer Samuel Barber at the piano. Her 1955 televised performance of Puccini's ''Tosca'', plus appearances at the San Francisco Opera as Poulenc's '' Dialogues des Carmélites'' and ''Aida'', brought her to international attention. She went on to sing at many of the world's major opera houses with ''Aida'', before her successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in 1961, as Leonora in Verdi's '' Il trovatore''. Continuing her career there, she starred in a multitude of operas for 20 years, securing her place among the leading performers of the century. One of these works was Barber's ''Antony and Cleopatra'', which she starred in for its world premiere. She made her farewell opera performance at the Met in 1985 in ''Aida''.

A lirico spinto (Italian for "pushed lyric") soprano, her musical interpretations were subtle but often overshadowed her acting. She was noted for her roles in operas by Mozart and Puccini, as well as playing Cleopatra in Handel's ''Giulio Cesare'' and Poppea in Monteverdi's ''L'incoronazione di Poppea''. However, the "middle period" operas of Verdi remain her greatest triumph; ''Aida'', the Leonoras of ''Il trovatore'' and '' La forza del destino'', as well as Amelia in '' Un ballo in maschera''. Her performances in these works, as well as Mozart and Puccini's operas, survive in her many recordings.

After her retirement from opera, Price continued to appear in recitals and orchestral concerts until 1997. After that, she would come out of retirement to sing at special events, including a memorial concert at Carnegie Hall, in 2001 for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Among her many honors and awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, in addition to her 13 Grammy Awards.

Life and career

Early life and family

Mary Violet Leontine Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi, on February 10, 1927. Her parents gave her the middle name Leontine after the name Leon; a name her parents had chosen if their child was born a boy. Her mother crafted this feminized version of the name. Her brother and only sibling, George, was born in 1929. He grew up to become a brigadier general in the United States Army, and lived until 2024 when he died at the age of 95.

Price's father, James Anthony Price, worked in the timber industry and was employed in the sawmills in Laurel. He also worked as a part-time carpenter. Her mother, Katherine Viola Price (née Baker), was a licensed practical nurse and midwife who delivered hundreds of babies in Laurel and the surrounding region. Her parents were both deeply religious, and her grandparents on both sides of the family were Methodist ministers.

When Price was born racial segregation in the United States impacted her childhood, and the enforcement of Jim Crow laws was a reality of everyday life in Mississippi. At that time black Americans were unable to share spaces like schools, churches, restaurants, restrooms, and theaters with white Americans. She lived with her family in the south side of Laurel which was where all of the town's black residents lived/ The Price family home was situated in the middle class section of Laurel's black community. She attended all-black schools throughout her childhood; including Sandy Gavin Elementary School. The family's church, Saint Paul's Methodist Church, was an all-black church. Her mother was a talented amateur singer who sang as a soloist in Saint Paul's church choir, and Leontyne grew up singing alongside her mother in this choral group. Her father played a tuba in the church band.

Childhood education and early music experiences

Price showed a natural affinity for music at an early age and began piano lessons at the age of three and a half with the local pianist Hattie McInnis. McInnis was one of the few African American music teachers that had studied under composer Carl Orff; a man known for developing the Orff Schulwerk approach to music education. Initially, she played on a toy piano, but by the time she was five, her parents traded in the family phonograph as the down payment on an upright piano. She studied with McInnis for more than twelve years; taking both piano and voice lessons with her. Her piano skills were further honed at Saint Paul's Methodist Church where she played regularly for Sunday school and at church services.

Leontyne's aunt, Evelina Greer, lived with her family and was employed as a maid in the home of Alexander and Elizabeth Chisholm; a wealthy white family living in the north part of Laurel. Elizabeth Chisholm (née Wisner) was the daughter of a wealthy lumber magnate, and Greer had worked for the Wisner family prior to her marriage to Alexander Chisholm, a successful banker. From an early age, Leontyne and her brother would often accompany their aunt when she went to work at the Chisholm home. The Chisholm family had children of about the same age as Leontyne and her brother, and the Price and Chisholm children became close friends. In particular, Leontyne and George were close with the Chisholm's older daughters, Jean and Margaret Ann (aka Peggy), and their parents also became friends with the Chisholms. Price maintained a life long friendship with one of the Chisholm girls.

Mrs. Chisholm was a trained pianist, and encouraged Leontyne's piano-playing and singing, often inviting her to sing at house parties. The Chisholm family gave Leontyne access to their phonograph and record collection which is how she experienced listening to opera for the first time. Aged nine, she was taken on a school trip to hear Marian Anderson sing a recital in Jackson. The experience was her first significant exposure to live classical music, and she later recalled: "The whole aura of the occasion had a tremendous effect on me, particularly the singer's dignity and, of course, her voice." Multiple commentators asserted that this event galvanized Price's interest in a musical career.

As a teenager, Price attended Oak Park Vocational High School (OPVHS) where she graduated in 1944 as salutatorian of her class. At OPVHS she was a cheerleader and a drum majorette in the school's band. She also sang in school choral groups, played piano for the school choir, and performed as a soloist at school events. During her high school years she earned extra money by singing for funerals and civic functions. She gave her fist solo recital at Sandy Gavin School Auditorium on December 17, 1943 during which she sang and played classical piano music.

College of Education and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce University

Price received her undergraduate education in Wilberforce, Ohio at the College of Education and Industrial Arts where she began her studies in the Fall 1944 semester at the age of 17. At that time, the school operated as a department inside Wilberforce University, a historically Black institution. Some sources erroneously claim that she enrolled at Central State University in 1944, but that institution did not formally exist until 1947 and was not known as Central State University until 1951.

Price attended Wilberforce University on a full four year long scholarship. She changed the spelling of her name to Leontyne while she was studying at Wilberforce. In June 1947, the summer before Price's senior year, the College of Education and Industrial Arts broke away from Wilberforce University to become its own separate institution known as the State College of Education and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce (now known as Central State University). Price graduated from the State College of Education and Industrial Arts at Wilberforce on June 3, 1948.

Price entered Wilberforce University as a music education major, and her voice training was as a mezzo-soprano at this institution. Wilberforce president Charles H. Wesley, along with several of her music professors and classmates, convinced her to change her major to vocal performance in her junior year at the school. Price also credited a visiting pianist to Wilberforce with influencing her decision to abandon a teaching vocation for a singing carer. That individual also convinced her that she was in a reality a soprano after she had the opportunity to perform and rehearse with the pianist. Some reference works state that Price studied singing with Catherine Van Buren at Wilberforce. However, newspapers covering vocal competitions she won while a student there state that she was a voice student of Clarice Estell at the university.

At Wilberforce, Price was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She sang and toured in the Wilberforce Singers at the same time that the ensemble's membership included mezzo-soprano Betty Allen. She was also a member of the Wilberforce Women's Glee Club under directors Flora Isabel Askew and Marie Ware. In 1946 she was the soloist in Théodore Dubois's ''Les Sept paroles du Christ'' (''The Seven Last Words of Christ'') with the Wilberforce University Choir conducted by Charles Henri Woode. In 1948 she starred in Wilberforce's production of Millard Lampell's ballad opera ''The Lonesome Train'' which they toured to Delaware for performances at a folk festival held on the campus of Wilmington College.

In Spring 1947, while a junior in the music department at Wilberforce, Price won first prize in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity inter-collegiate music competition held on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. Her repertoire at this competition included the soprano aria " Vissi d'arte" from ''Tosca''. Later in the year, while a senior at the school, she placed third in the American Music Festival competition in Chicago which was sponsored by ''The Chicago Defender''. She, and the competition's other two winners, performed in concert at Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox, as part of the festival on July 25, 1947 in front of a crowd of 20,000 people. At this time she was billed as a mezzo-soprano.

Juilliard School and other training

Paying for Juilliard: A community rallies

Price decided she wanted to pursue further studies in singing at the Juilliard School while an undergraduate student in Wilberforce. Administrators at the State College of Education and Industrial Arts wanted to support her in this endeavor, and a Leontyne Price Fund was formally organized by the school to help provide funds towards this goal. The renowned bass Paul Robeson was an important early supporter of Price who lent his talents to help raise money for this fund, and together Robeson and Price sang in a benefit concert which raised $1,000.00 for her Juilliard education. Robeson first became aware of Price after hearing her sing while visiting Wilberforce in 1946. She later participated in master classes with Robeson at Antioch College.

While the benefit concert did raise money for Price's Juilliard tuition, it was nowhere close to the funds she needed to attend the school. The Chisholm family remained supportive of Price, and according to some sources they paid for the majority of her tuition while she was a graduate student at Juilliard after obtaining permission from Price's parents to do so. Other sources state that Price won a scholarship to Juilliard which paid for her tuition, but that the Chisholm's paid for her living expenses such as rent and food, and for materials she needed for her studies.

The story of the Chisholm family's generosity was widely publicized in the press, to the point that some have criticized the news coverage of propagating a White savior narrative that overlooked the impact Price's own agency, hard work, and talent had on her achievements. Critics in the Black community in Laurel have also pointed to the many African Americans in Laurel ranging from teachers, ministers, neighbors, members of black churches, and fellow black musicians among others who rallied behind her in a network of support.

Yet, the Chisholm family's support of Price was based in genuine friendship with Margaret Ann Chisholm remaining one of Price's closest life long friends. Price herself, expressed frustration with the news coverage of the Chisholm family's support with her particular pointed comments emphasizing that the coverage had overlooked the contributions that her own family had made towards her success, including taking out a mortgage on the family home. Price stated the following in a 1976 interview:

"The Press has made too much of that legend. I love Miss Chisholm; she was here only last month. Her daughter Margaret Ann and I are best friends. But the Chisholms got exposure because of the racial angle. I guess it makes me angry because it denies the sacrifices my parents made for me."

In a 2012 interview, Price criticized the press coverage of her relationship with the Chisholms as being mischaracterized. She emphasized the importance of the absence of paternalism in her relationship with the Chisholm family, and described what one historian summarized as the "strangeness of real relationships between Blacks and whites in the American South in the first century after slavery."

Juilliard School, Berkshire Music Center, and studies with Florence Kimball

Price attended Juilliard at a time when the institution was training a relatively large group of students that would go on to have successful opera and/or concert careers on the international stage. Several African-American singers of note were trained at the school while she was there, including Shirley Verrett, Martha Flowers and Leonora Lafayette. Some of her other classmates included sopranos Evelyn Lear, Bethany Beardslee, Gladys Kuchta, Evelyn Aring, Betty Wilson Long, Corinne Swall, Louise Natale, and Marianne Weltmann; contralto Florence Kopleff; countertenor Russell Oberlin; and tenor Charles Bressler to name just a few. Pianist David Garvey was also a student with Price at Juilliard, and he became her regular accompanist throughout her career.

Price began her studies at the Juilliard School in the fall of 1948 where she was a voice student of Florence Page Kimball. Kimball is credited with transforming Price's voice from a "heavy molasses mezzo" into a soprano, and Price indicated that she learned the vocal technique that sustained her career from Kimball. In Kimball's studio Price developed an affinity for the music of Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Much of their time together in her early voice lessons at Juilliard was spent mastering the title roles in ''Aida'' and ''Ariadne auf Naxos''. The two women developed a close relationship and Price continued to study singing with Kimball long after she graduated from Juilliard. Together they prepared her roles for the Metropolitan Opera; with Kimball even helping her select her costumes and think through stage movements in addition to working on the music material. In a 1983 interview, Price stated of her association with Florence Kimball:

It was the most important relationship of my life. Like sex it was pure chemistry... She told me there was an innate quality of dignity in my voice, and that I moved like I sounded.

While studying at Juilliard, Price spent her first school year living in the Harlem YWCA, which was safe and affordable accommodation open to Black women. She later lived in the International House of New York where she also worked at the information desk while a Juilliard student. William Schuman was the president of the Juilliard School while Price was a student, and his tenure was marked by support of students performing newly composed music; an attitude markedly different from his predecessor. He also introduced and implemented a new pedagogy of teaching music theory at Juilliard during that period called "Literature and Materials". Price was introduced to composer Samuel Barber at Juilliard by Florence Kimball, and the two ultimately became frequent collaborators.

Price's interest in opera blossomed at Juilliard after attending performances of ''Turandot'' by the New York City Opera and ''Salome'' at the Metropolitan Opera. She attended the latter opera in the standing room only section of the Met during her second year of study at the school. The performance by Ljuba Welitsch in the title role solidified a strong interest in the art form within Price. In the fall of 1950 she became a member of the Juilliard Opera Workshop which was directed by Frederic Cohen. In Cohen's "Introduction to Opera" course she studied and performed " Dido's Lament" from Henry Purcell's ''Dido and Aeneas'', and Cohen reportedly said to his wife "we have the voice of the century" after hearing her perform the aria. Cohen's wife, Elsa Kahl, taught stage movement to the students in Juilliard's opera program.

Price initially performed small roles in Juilliard Opera Workshop (also known as the Juilliard Opera Theatre) performances of Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' (First Lady) and Puccini's '' Gianni Schicchi'' (Aunt Nella). In the summer of 1951, she enrolled in the opera program at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. At the 1951 Tanglewood Music Festival (then known as the Berkshire Music Festival) she performed the role of Ariadne in a pre-professional production of Richard Strauss's ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' (second cast) under conductor Sarah Caldwell in a production directed by Boris Goldovsky. In July 1951 she was heard at the festival singing the " Quia respexit" from Bach's ''Magnificat'' under conductor Eleazar de Carvalho. She was also heard in August 1951 concerts at Tanglewood performing lieder by Hugo Wolf and excerpts from ''Aida''.

In 1952 Price sang the larger role of Misstress Ford in the Juilliard Opera Theatre production of Verdi's ''Falstaff'' under the baton of Frederic Waldman. Others in the cast included bass-baritone Orville White in the title role, Stephen Harbachick as Ford, Rosemary Carlos as Anne, and the well known New York City cantor Lawrence Avery as Bardolph. This production garnered excellent reviews in the New York press with Douglas Watt of the ''New York Daily News'' writing, "Mary Leontyne Price, as Mistress Ford, revealed the makings of an impressive dramatic soprano and gave a good acting performance, as well." Howard Taubman in ''The New York Times'' was also complimentary, stating "Miss Price has a rich, well-placed dramatic voice, and she knows how to use it."

Price was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship during her final year at Juilliard, and initially planned on studying in Europe with these scholarship funds after completing her Juilliard studies in the spring of 1952. However, performance opportunities changed her plans, and she abandoned her fellowship.

Early career

''Four Saints in Three Acts'' and ''Porgy and Bess''

=Casting in ''Porgy and Bess'' and ''Four Saints in Three Acts''

=
Price's performance in the 1952 Juilliard production of ''Falstaff'' drew positive attention not only from critics, but also producers who were in the midst of casting up-coming productions. Producers Blevins Davis and Robert Breen watched a performance and decided to cast Price in the role of Bess in their up-coming revival of George Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess''. Some sources also claim that composer Virgil Thomson saw Price perform in ''Falstaff'' and based on this cast her in the 1952 Broadway revival of his all-black cast opera, '' Four Saints in Three Acts'', which featured a libretto by Gertrude Stein. However, letters between composers Nicolas Nabokov and Thomson draw into question the truthfulness of this narrative in regards to the latter opera.

Nabokov was director of the 1952 Paris music festival "Masterpieces of the 20th Century" which was presented under the auspices of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. An August 1951 conversation between Nabokov and Thomson led to the planning of a revival of ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' at this Paris music festival with Nabokov and Thomson selecting the creative team behind the revival in consultation with one another. The decision was made to put the production together in New York with a limited engagement there before taking it to France.

Its unclear how Nabokov first became aware of Price, but in three separate letters to Thomson he made pleas for the composer to cast Price in the opera. In one of these letters he mentions that Price sings better than what she did in an audition for Thomson which indicates that the composer had hesitations about casting Price. Nabokov also made financial arguments in these pleas, going so far as to secure a scholarship for Price to study at the Fontainebleau School in Paris so that they would not have to pay for her board in France, and mentioning that patrons in Mississippi had agreed to pay for her travel expenses to and from Paris. Ultimately Nabokov succeeded in winning over Thomson, and Price made her professional stage debut in ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' in 1952 while she was still a Juilliard student. In March 1952 '' The Afro-American'' reported that Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm were the benefactors supporting Price on her trip to France, and that she would be studying at Fontainebleau while in Paris after her final year of studies at Juilliard.

=Professional debut in ''Four Saints in Three Acts'', ''Porgy and Bess'' tour, and Price's marriage to Warfield

=
''Four Saints in Three Acts'' opened in New York at the Broadway Theatre on 53rd Street on April 16, 1952 with Price in the role of Saint Cecelia. Some sources, but not all, consider it her professional opera debut. After two weeks running on Broadway, the production of ''Saints'' went to Paris, France; marking Price's first professional engagement on the international stage. She returned to the United States in early June 1952 to quickly join Davis and Breen's revival of ''Porgy and Bess'' which opened in Dallas at the State Fair of Texas on June 9, 1952. Price arrived very late in the rehearsal process due to her obligations in Paris, and only was able to attend two rehearsals before performing the part on this opening date with conductor Alexander Smallens leading the musical forces.

Davis and Breen structured the ''Porgy and Bess'' tour purposefully to challenge segregation in the American South by refusing to allow their performances to be played before segregated audiences. However, cast members did experience challenges on the southern portion of the tour; with some being denied hotel rooms or the ability to eat in restaurants due to racial segregation. Price toured in ''Porgy and Bess'' for two years with she and Urylee Leonardos alternating performances in the role of Bess. The production was given the backing of the U.S. State Department which supported an international tour of the production in an effort to fight anti-American propaganda in Europe by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. From Dallas the tour first went to the Civic Opera House in Chicago, the Nixon Theater in Pittsburgh, and the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. United States President Harry S. Truman attended a performance at the latter theatre.

Just prior to beginning the European portion of the tour, Price married her co-star in the production, the bass-baritone William Warfield, who portrayed Porgy. Some sources claim Warfield and Price met for the first time during rehearsals of ''Porgy and Bess'' and quickly formed a romantic attachment. This narrative, however, does not match the account given in Richard Steins's 1993 biography on Price, which states they met when Davis and Breen brought Warfield with them to see Price perform in the Juilliard production of ''Falstaff''. According to Stein, Warfield began dating Price soon after this and would pick her up at her residence at the International House of New York where she lived during her senior year at Juilliard prior to the ''Porgy and Bess'' tour.

Price and Warfield were married on August 31, 1952 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, with the cast of ''Porgy and Bess'' in attendance. The day after their wedding the cast was flown to Europe by the U.S. State Department aboard a military airplane with the stated goal of the tour being to refute communist claims that black Americans were repressed by the American government and lacked opportunities. In addition to the cast, the state department arranged for American reporters to join the cast on portions of the tour, and traveled with its own professional photographer who routinely set photos to the press. Among the media representatives who joined the cast on parts of the tour were Truman Capote for ''The New Yorker'' and the publisher of ''The New York Times'', Arthur Hays Sulzberger, along with his wife Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger.{{sfn, Noonan, 2012, page=205

The well coordinated media and diplomatic campaign of the U.S. State Department also required the ''Porgy and Bess'' cast to attend and perform at embassy events in every city along the tour.{{sfn, Noonan, 2012, page=212 Due to her talent and her ability to conduct herself with both ladylike poise and strength, Price was used by U.S. State Department to project an image of anti-racism on the global stage. Additionally, the legend of the Chisholm family's support for Price was co-opted by Anthony Carlisle, a writer for the U.S. State Department, to tell a story of happy race relations in the American South to counter communist narratives and anti-Imperial messaging from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Carlisle consciously worked to curate a "good black diva" image of Price in the press during this tour which followed her into her later career.{{sfn, Brooks, 2002, page=303

The European portion of the tour opened in September 7, 1952 at the Vienna State Opera; a performance which marked the first time ''Porgy and Bess'' was performed in Europe. It then headed to the Titania-Palast to open the 1952 Berlin Festival. Although many Black newspapers criticized the export of ''Porgy and Bess'' as presenting a false and demeaning picture of Black life, the Breen production showed off a new generation of highly trained Black singers, and affirmed that Americans could revive a musical masterpiece, while recognizing its outdated stereotypes. Many East Berliners crossed to West Berlin to see the show, to the degree that the State Department ordered that East German currency be accepted at face value instead of the current exchange rate.{{sfn, Thurman, 2021, pages=209–210

From Berlin, the production moved on to London where it opened at the Stoll Theatre in the West End on October 9, 1952. It ran at the Stoli for a total of 140 performances; closing on February 7, 1953.{{sfn, Wearing, 2014, page=190 During the show's West End run, Warfield left the show in December 1952 in order to fulfill concert tour engagements in the United States with Price remaining in the London production. Warfield's inability to adjust a busy recital and concert schedule led to a long separation from his wife, with Price singing Bess for another year without him. Warfield said the period of physical separation put a strain on their young marriage. The couple was legally separated in 1967, and divorced in 1973. They had no children.

''Porgy and Bess'' began its run at the Théâtre de l'Empire in Paris on February 16, 1953. After returning to the United States, the production played on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre where it opened with a matinée performance reserved for an invited audience on March 9, 1953. It officially opened to the public the following day, and ran at the Ziegfeld Theatre for a total of 305 performances; closing on November 28, 1953.{{sfn, Dietz, 2014, page=135 Price and her husband bought a home in Greenwich Village which they moved into during the New York run of ''Porgy and Bess''.{{sfn, Steins, 1993, page=23

After the Broadway run closed, ''Porgy and Bess'' returned to the National Theatre in Washington D.C. from December 1953 into early 1954 with Price playing Bess opposite Leslie Scott as Porgy. The production then moved to the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio where began its Ohio run on February 1, 1954. Price sang Bess for its first night of performance at the Music Hall in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 22, 1954 with LeVern Hutcherson as Porgy, and also opened the production's run in a return engagement at the Chicago Civic Opera on March 2, 1954 with Scott once again as Porgy.

At this point in the tour, Price was alternating performances of Bess with fellow sopranos Irene Williams and Elizabeth Foster. She was still with the production when it played at the Lyceum Theatre in Minneapolis in March 1954, but left the tour for a brief period the following month to represent the United States at the International Conference of Contemporary Music in Rome. At that festival she notably performed Lou Harrison's "Air” from his 1952 opera ''Rapunzel'' with a chamber orchestra led by Carlos Surinach

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