Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:07

Miss Price, you were born in the state of Mississippi. Do you come from a musical family?

Leontyne Price0:12

I wouldn't say I'm usical family as such, but my mother.

Leontyne Price0:16

had a gloriously beautiful voice and sang an awful lot, so I guess probably that was the beginning of my initial inspiration to sing, yes.

Presenter0:26

How did you start? Were you put to the piano in in the usual way?

Leontyne Price0:29

Yes, it's sort of the usual way. The only thing is with um um having piano lessons at a very early age uh in the community where I was, which is a rather provincial one, uh it's put to good use as soon as you can tell one chord from the other. So I was playing for Sunday school and for community social events and also graduated to playing even for the eleven o'clock service in the church.

Presenter0:52

Did you sing in the choir?

Leontyne Price0:53

Oh yes, I did. That was sort of a a double duty because um as I got a little older as a an early teenager, say from fourteen to sixteen, I played and sang, so I was sort of the one lady band, just so to speak.

Presenter1:06

That's all.

Presenter1:07

When did the ambition begin to take shape that you wanted music to be your your life, your profession?

Leontyne Price1:13

I think I've wanted to do something musically ever since I can remember, but I recall vividly an experience which I think probably pinpointed it for me. At the age of nine or ten, I've forgotten technically which age it was, but somewhere along there, I um was carried by my mother to a neighboring uh town of Jackson, Mississippi.

Leontyne Price1:36

And a gloriously regal lady walked out on stage in a beautiful white gown, and her name was Marian Anderson. And I knew as soon as I saw her walk out, even before she started to sing, and even more afterwards, that that's what I'd like to do one day.

Presenter1:53

Yes. And you won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Was the scholarship enough to live on or did you have to take jobs to tide you over?

Leontyne Price1:56

Yeah.

Leontyne Price2:00

I had jobs. I had this may be incredible to believe, but I had a part-time job as a hostess behind an information desk at the International House in New York City. I have friends and colleagues who would probably argue that I had an information to give, but

Presenter2:09

Yeah, the international

Leontyne Price2:16

Uh it certainly helped to pay for music and I had um

Presenter2:16

Uh it's totally how

Leontyne Price2:19

uh some help from friends and I worked also alternate Sundays for a church. I I was a soloist there. So we made ends meet what with my my parents' help and and mine.

Presenter2:26

So

Presenter2:30

As a student, which singers influenced you most?

Leontyne Price2:34

Number one, as I said, Marianne Anderson. Operatically speaking, I would have to say, without any question, Maria Carlas. I think that she has left for us all a legacy of electricity, histrionic achievements, vocal perfection, professionalism, qualities that are too numerous to mention. As far as opera is concerned, she definitely was my great, great inspiration.

Presenter3:02

You did rather well in a student production of Verdi's Falstaff.

Leontyne Price3:05

Yes.

Presenter3:05

Now that student production of Falstaff was very useful to you because it was seen by Virgil Thompson.

Leontyne Price3:10

That's true. Virgil Thompson was repeating a revival of his Four Saints in Three Acts and I was able to I audition then I was able to get that part. Also the performance in which he heard me in Falstaff as Mistress Ford helped also as a double part of the audition so I was able to be sort of number seven saint on the right or something for a while.

Presenter3:31

And Four Saints and Three Acts led on to something else.

Leontyne Price3:34

Four Season 3 Acts led on to the part of Bess in the third revival of Porgy and Bess in 1952.

Presenter3:41

It was a Broadway run and you brought Poggy and Bess to London and Paris and

Leontyne Price3:45

Yes, it was my first trip to this glorious city, as a matter of fact, nineteen fifty two.

Presenter3:49

Now, two seasons of a singing bass.

Presenter3:52

And back to the States. You gave a recital at New York Town Hall that went down exceedingly well.

Leontyne Price3:58

Yes, um that crossed the bridge from Broadway to, I guess, what you would call the mm classic performing era.

Presenter4:08

Ninety.

Leontyne Price4:08

Nineteen fifty-four it was, yes.

Presenter4:10

Then some opera on television.

Leontyne Price4:11

Hmm?

Leontyne Price4:12

Then, yes, the NBC at that time sponsored a series of live opera performances in English, and I was given the role of Tosca, which made quite a splash in many ways, happily vocally, I'm very happy to say, but also the fact that it was the first time a black artist was in an operatic role on national television.

Presenter4:35

Yes.

Leontyne Price4:36

Yeah.

Presenter4:36

What was your first classical operatic appearance in the States?

Leontyne Price4:40

Actually, the dialogues of the Carmelites in San Francisco in 1957.

Leontyne Price4:45

in the Francis Poulenck opera was my very first operatic stage performance professionally in the United States.

Presenter4:53

Yes. And overseas?

Leontyne Price4:55

Overseas was in um Verona first and actually immediately after that, 1958, my debut here in Covent Garden in Aida.

Presenter5:04

And you sang Aida of the Scala Milan.

Leontyne Price5:07

Yes, n uh later, in nineteen sixty.

Presenter5:09

Was that a a a nerve wracking occasion? Here was an American singing A Verdi Roll in Milan.

Presenter5:15

Did you feel sort of rather humble about that or a bit scared?

Leontyne Price5:18

Oh, I think you can be.

Presenter5:20

And

Leontyne Price5:20

Humble to an extent, but not too humble if you're afraid of

Presenter5:23

Follow with

Leontyne Price5:25

Only with only with family, I guess. No, uh not r I I I've never been afraid uh doing I eat it. It's sort of my

Leontyne Price5:34

Um how can I put it? I don't want to offend anyone, but it's sort of my

Leontyne Price5:39

Comfortable shoe part, you know.

Presenter5:41

That's a

Leontyne Price5:42

I I have the wrong wheel travel. So I wasn't I wasn't upset about it at all.

Presenter5:45

Yeah, my

Leontyne Price5:47

Very much so, yes.

Presenter5:48

When did you make your debut at the Metropolitan New York?

Leontyne Price5:50

Uh January 1961, in the role of Leonora in Il Trovatore.

Presenter5:55

Yeah.

Leontyne Price5:56

Yeah.

Presenter5:57

And in 1966, you starred in the opening production at the new Metropolitan. Now, that must have been quite a night.

Leontyne Price6:02

Speaking of petrifying experiences, that was one, yes. Um in 1966 the opera Antony and Cleopatra written by our very marvelous composer Samuel Barber uh was the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House and I had the privilege of singing the part of Cleopatra.

Presenter6:23

How many operatic rails do you have in your repertoire?

Leontyne Price6:26

Goodness, everybody don't.

Presenter6:26

Ever control?

Leontyne Price6:27

Yeah.

Presenter6:27

Yeah.

Leontyne Price6:27

Yeah.

Leontyne Price6:28

I really don't know.

Presenter6:29

What?

Leontyne Price6:29

Quite a few.

Presenter6:30

Apart from Ada, which are the easy choose ones.

Leontyne Price6:33

I try to think of them all as easy shoes. My approach is that they all, um, are not not too difficult. I think that's a healthy approach.

Presenter6:41

Right. Which are the ones you'd still like to sing?

Leontyne Price6:44

Probably I would like to do someday maybe um La Traviat on stage. I have not done that yet. It is in my repertoire, but I have not performed it as yet.

Presenter6:53

What proportion of your professional life i is devoted to concert singing?

Leontyne Price6:57

Now I have divided my performing life into three units. Uh so it's um one-third um recital and concert performances, one-third opera and one-third recording.

Presenter7:11

Yeah. You're a very prolific recording artist. You do most of your recording in London.

Leontyne Price7:14

I'm happy to say I certainly do. I enjoy it immensely.

Presenter7:17

That that's why you do it here.

Leontyne Price7:19

Well, for many, many reasons. It's where it's where RSCA does record now. But from my point of view, my love for English history makes it happier days for me when I'm not recording to stay in London.

Presenter7:31

Yeah. You you like roaming around old English buildings?

Leontyne Price7:31

Yeah.

Leontyne Price7:33

I do. There's so much to see here. It's a glory.

Presenter7:36

Which period in history intrigues you met?

Leontyne Price7:38

The Elizabethan Age.

Presenter7:40

Where is your base? Where do you live? In New York?

Leontyne Price7:42

Yes, um, I live in uh the lower part of Manhattan, Greenwich Village, which is rather like your Chelsea area here, I think. Yes.

Presenter7:50

What excitements are lined up for the future

Leontyne Price7:53

Um, I think I've uh speaking of other things that are exciting, there's another role that I'm adding to my repertoire in the within the year, and that is Mano Lesco of Buccini. So uh right now that's probably my most exciting thing to look forward to.

Presenter8:02

So

Presenter8:06

Where are you going to sing that?

Leontyne Price8:07

I will be doing it in uh San Francisco for the opening next season.

Presenter8:11

Great.

Leontyne Price8:11

Yeah.