Metropolitan Opera releases Leontyne Price at the Met
September 21st, 2020
2-CD collection features 34 live recordings, including previously unreleased selections, that highlight soprano Leontyne Price’s great Met performances spanning more than two decades Available for purchase September 18, 2020, at metoperashop.org
New York, NY (September 16, 2020)—The Metropolitan Opera presents Leontyne Price at the Met, a 2-CD collection that features 34 live recordings highlighting soprano Leontyne Price’s great Met performances. The collection is available for purchase beginning September 18, 2020, at metoperashop.org and will be released digitally in early 2021.
Leontyne Price at the Met offers a sampling of Price’s artistry in her illustrious Met career spanning more than two decades, including selections from Price’s second-ever Met performance in 1961 as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore and her 1962 performance in the title role of Puccini’s Tosca. Excerpts from Price’s momentous performance in the world premiere of Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, the opera that opened the new Met at Lincoln Center in 1966, are also featured.
The collection presents recordings that have previously been unreleased, such as selections from Price’s 1974 performance as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, in addition to many of Price’s signature Verdi roles: Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera from 1966; Leonora in Il Trovatore from 1969; and Leonora in La Forza del Destino from 1972 and 1977.
Recordings from Price’s 1962 and 1965 performances as Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani are also included, in addition to stirring selections from a 1982 concert performance of Messa da Requiem. The collection also spotlights selections from two of Price’s performances in a Verdi role that she defined: Aida. The collection culminates with a moving rendition of “O patria mia” from Aida, from Price’s 1985 farewell performance at the Met, or as the soprano called the company in Susan Froemke’s 2017 documentary The Opera House, “My operatic home.”
A full list of tracks can be found below, and please visit metoperashop.org for more information.
Leontyne Price at the Met Track Listings
DISC 1 68:00
Puccini’s Tosca
Leontyne Price as Tosca
April 7, 1962
1 Act I: “Mario! Mario! Mario!” 7:36
Kurt Adler (Conductor), Franco Corelli (Cavaradossi)
2 Act I: “Qual’occhio al mondo” 5:28
Kurt Adler (Conductor), Franco Corelli (Cavaradossi)
3 Act II: “Vissi d’arte” 3:40
Kurt Adler (Conductor)
4 Act III: “O dolci mani mansuete e pure” 5:27
Kurt Adler (Conductor), Franco Corelli (Cavaradossi)
Verdi’s Il Trovatore
Leontyne Price as Leonora
5 Act I: “Che più t’arresti?” 2:17
Fausto Cleva (Conductor), Teresa Stratas (Ines)
February 4, 1961
6 Act I: “Tacea la notte placida” 4:25
Fausto Cleva (Conductor)
February 4, 1961
7 Act I: “Di tale amor” 1:32
Fausto Cleva (Conductor)
February 4, 1961
8 Act IV: “Siam giunti” 3:00
Zubin Mehta (Conductor), Charles Anthony (Ruiz)
March 29, 1969
9 Act IV: “D’amor sull’ali rosee” 5:13
Zubin Mehta (Conductor)
March 29, 1969
10 Act IV: “Miserere” 4:50
Zubin Mehta (Conductor), James McCracken (Manrico),
Metropolitan Opera Chorus
March 29, 1969
Verdi’s Ernani
Leontyne Price as Elvira
11 Act I: “Surta è la notte—Ernani! Ernani involami” 4:47
Thomas Schippers (Conductor)
December 1, 1962
12 Act I: “Tutto sprezzo che d’Ernani” 1:45
Thomas Schippers (Conductor), Metropolitan Opera Chorus
December 1, 1962
13 Act IV: “Ferma, crudele, estinguere perché” 5:07
Thomas Schippers (Conductor), Cesare Siepi (Don Ruy Gomez de Silva),
Franco Corelli (Ernani)
April 10, 1965
Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera
Leontyne Price as Amelia
February 26, 1966
14 Act II: “Ecco l’orrido—Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa” 6:25
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (Conductor)
15 Act III: “A tal colpa è nulla il pianto” 2:23
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (Conductor), Robert Merrill (Renato)
16 Act III: “Morrò, ma prima in grazia” 3:49
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (Conductor)
DISC 2 79:33
Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra
Leontyne Price as CleopatraSeptember 16, 1966
1 Act III: “He words me, girls, he words me” 4:56
Thomas Schippers (Conductor), Belén Amparán (Iras), Gene
Boucher (Dolabella), Peter Sliker (Sentinel), Clifford Harvuot (Rustic)
2 Act III: “Give me my robe” 4:53
Thomas Schippers (Conductor), Rosalind Elias (Charmian)
Verdi’s Aida
Leontyne Price as Aida
February 25, 1967
3 Act I: “Ritorna vincitor!” 7:08
Thomas Schippers (Conductor)
4 Act III: “Pur ti riveggo, mia dolce Aida” 3:06
Thomas Schippers (Conductor), Carlo Bergonzi (Radamès)
5 Act III: “Fuggiam gli ardori inospiti” 6:51
Thomas Schippers (Conductor), Carlo Bergonzi (Radamès)
Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Leontyne Price as Donna Anna
April 13, 1974
6 Act I: “Don Ottavio, son morta!” 3:02
James Levine (Conductor), Stuart Burrows (Don Ottavio)
7 Act I: “Or sai chi l’onore” 2:54
James Levine (Conductor)
8 Act II: “Crudele? Ah no, mio bene!” 1:51
James Levine (Conductor), Stuart Burrows (Don Ottavio)
9 Act II: “Non mi dir, bell’idol mio” 5:19
James Levine (Conductor)
Verdi’s La Forza del Destino
Leontyne Price as Leonora
10 Act I: “Me pellegrina ed orfana” 3:56
James Levine (Conductor)
March 12, 1977
11 Act II: “Son giunta!—Madre, Madres, pietosa Vergine” 6:45
Michelangelo Veltri (Conductor), Metropolitan Opera Chorus
February 12, 1972
12 Act II: “La Vergine degli Angeli” 3:15
James Levine (Conductor), Metropolitan Opera Chorus
March 12, 1977
13 Act IV: “Pace, pace mio Dio!” 5:40
James Levine (Conductor)
March 12, 1977
Verdi’s Messa da Requiem
February 20, 1982
14 VII. Libera me: “Libera me, Domine” 2:17
James Levine (Conductor), Metropolitan Opera Chorus
15 VII. Libera me: “Dies irae” 2:14
James Levine (Conductor), Metropolitan Opera Chorus
16 VII. Libera me: “Requiem aeternam” 2:43
James Levine (Conductor), Metropolitan Opera Chorus
17 VII. Libera me: “Libera me, Domine” 5:20
James Levine (Conductor), Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Verdi’s Aida
Leontyne Price as Aida
January 3, 1985
18 Act III: “Qui Radamès verrà!—O patria mia” 7:23
James Levine (Conductor)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Total run time: 147 Mins