Leontyne Price, RCA Records
Dominique-René de Lerma:
On his seventh venture, Bill McLaughlin
began the huge world of the Black singer, and we know that the remaining three
programs in this most welcome series will not be enough even to do more than
touch on all this monumental talent, but the inception was right on the mark
with Leontyne Price who glistened in Vissi d'arte and Pace, pace.
(Her 1977 performance of La forza del destino, with the latter aria and
Plácido Domingo, is scheduled for broadcast, 23 March at 1 PM, Eastern time
zone). Does anyone know of a totally respectable biography on this prima
donna di tutte le prime donne, or even a serious effort to complete a
discography? She had proven herself before her Met debut in 1961, when her
performance in Il trovatore elicited a record 45 minutes of cheers and
yells from the hall. She had previously joined William Warfield and others
(yes, even Maya Angelou!) in a tour abroad of Porgy and Bess (Gloria
Davy, who died last November, was Price's replacement). During this time,
Warfield had secured management, while she was yet left on her own, fearing she
would never have a career. Our dear Mama Price turned 86 this month, three
decades after her farewell to the opera stage.
I knew Warfield, who had come to
Appleton on the Holt Series to narrate Peter and the wolf. In his
autobiography (My music and my life, Sagamore, 1991) he admits what had
been evident to all of us, that his vocal problems had appeared by the early
1960s, but he continued to charm the public and coached many young singers into
major careers. Anyone who knew him was showered with his infectious good
spirits and boundless good humor. One item that is socially acceptable came
straight from the laughing barrel, the Harlem Cheer: Watermelon, barbeque,
Cadillac car, We're not as dumb as you think we is. I have no idea how
Leontyne Price put up with his endless repertoire of stories during their
marriage and I was discreet enough during our four days together not to ask. I
was in Vienna in 2002 when news reached me that Uncle Bill had died. His last
recording was as narrator on Darryl Taylor's Naxos CD of Langston Hughes
settings.
Price and Warfield are both heard in Porgy
and Bess, along with McHenry Boatwright and John Bubbles with Skitch
Henderson conducting in a recording that, alas, is limited to chunks of
selections, but has been reissued in 1999 by RCA on CD.
The inclusion of Ellington's Black, Brown, and Beige gave us the third singer: Mahalia Jackson, whose
magnificent contralto never veered to the secular. Here we heard her in Come
Sunday, one of the most touching and beautiful of all melodies.
With so little time left, we know there
will be composers, instrumentalists, and singers who cannot be included. One
who will not appear is Dr. Blanche Foreman, another member of the
"Michigan Mafia". Blanche, a student of Eileen Farrell, completed
her Indiana dissertation at my home in Baltimore when she and pianist-composer
Charles Lloyd recorded a series of spirituals. Blanche, whose ambition did
include the doctorate, did not follow the career her talent demanded. She
called me one time: "You know Marilyn Horne? Well, honey, I can sing anything
that White b... sings!" She could, too. I know it. But she never
did. Blanche died in 2007.
------------------------------------
Dominique-René
de Lerma
No comments:
Post a Comment