![]() Her splendid vocal gifts attracted the attention of important musicians and impresarios, and success upon success soon followed: Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, in San Francisco, followed immediately by Aida, (an opera with which she would always be associated), Don Giovanni, and Il trovatore. That marked the real beginning of an opera career. ![]() She moved, in reasonably short order, to Four Saints in Three Acts, Porgy and Bess, and then, unusually for the times, a TV production of Tosca. From there on, her career begins to follow a fairly recognizable path. Her first stage performance was as Mistress Ford in a 1952 student production of Verdi's Falstaff. Her goals at the beginning were modest, and she first aimed at a teaching career, attending Wilberforce College in Ohio. It was her voice, of course, that first attracted attention. She studied piano and also sang in choirs. ![]() ![]() ![]() Like many before her, she showed musical promise as a child. She came of age, and rose to fame, during a period of racial change in America, and she broke barriers that had long existed, becoming the first African American to sing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, and among the first to sing such roles at the great opera houses of the world, including La Scala. Leontyne Price was born in 1927, in Laurel, Misissippi. ![]()
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