Talking the talk
An elegantly beturbaned Miss Leontyne Price offers an object lesson in The Art of the Diva Interview.
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and interviewed by the japanese, she is the best
Quelle belle visage!
Cher Camille, it is LE visage … So ‘Quel beau visage’. But what you say is true. Extraordinary looking woman (quite apart from the voice). I don’t think those eyebrows are hers, though.
I know.
Monsieur, it sounds prettier to say Quelle Belle!
And it is Chere, not Cher as in Sonny and….
Would that Verdi could have heard her in Aida!
Touché, Camille!
[Or should that be Touchée...?]
The Camille I know in real life is a man. Like Saint-Saëns. You could have said “Quelle belle tête” and then we would all have been happy. Including The Big L.
Would that I could have heard her in Aida — or anything in the flesh.
oh dear, to whom do you refer regarding the eyebrows? I’ve just now seen the Callas video and thought her eyebrows far more enticing.
R.S.V.P.
I meant les sourcils de la belle Leontyne.
What a wonderful, inspirational interview with Madame Leontyne and John Calloway – even though it was filmed here in town, first time I’ve ever seen it. So much of what she speaks of is still relevant. Lee sang her only Thais here just as Callas sang her only Butterfly here! I remember once at Ravinia where I wasn’t very impressed, at one time at Orchestra Hall for a recital when I really was – her rendition of Strauss’ Befreit had me in tears.
I was once waiting for an elevator at her record company, when the door opened and she — beturbaned, to be sure — stepped out. I literally fell against a wall in awe.
Thank you, Cieca Carissima. These videos are an inestimable gift.
The woman is a fucking saint.
I must also say the interviewer is masterly. He deserves a lot of credit.
Did you speak to her? Did she notice you falling against a wall, or is she accustomed to that kind of thing.
I have the feeling that Miss P would have taken it completely in her stride — or should I say straahd. Or some other, more elabarately phrased metaphowah.
Well Noel Dahling; it may not be the same but one night I slipped over on a skating rink and who should hug and pick me up but the original Leatherman of the Village People! I felt like throwing myself down again, for a repeat performance!
She smiled and said Good Afternoon.
Thanks so much for that, La Cieca. I can’t name my second favorite singer – that starts a whole list. But my favorite – always Leontyne. Always.
“The burden and the glory.”
Oh my god, how much do I love this woman?
Leontyne Price still reminds us , just how good we once had it, with her and others around…..’the era of real stars’. Not the pale tarted up imitations they present today, in most cases. Where everything they do off the stage, and in their life …. is the main claim to fame.
“The luxury of listening to my own sound”! We love you, Lee!
Anyone know what the heck Tebaldi is saying?
It’s something about transpositions, challenging orchestrations (like Strauss’s) and the rise of the little, bland voices.
Another real diva.
That’s it? I figured someone around here would be able to tell me exactly what she’s saying. You guys always seem like the know-it-alls.
She just barely avoids that Lyndon LaRouche tuning A pitch story that obsessed her for a couple of years.
Well, she’s saying that there some instruments are suited to symphonies, and others better suited to opera. In a symphony you can use what you like, but for singers you need other considerations. Most voices get smaller as they climb higher. But transposition should not be necessary if the correct instrumentation is used. Otherwise we are moving away from what the composer created, and intended us to hear.
She is discussing the need for the lowering of the diapason — she probably wants it set to a tuning of 432 — which she maintains is destroying larger voices — well, that’s been pretty much systematically done now, so this must date back.
She speaks of Strauss and the nervous effect upon her, etc., but I did not catch all that, will have to listen again.
Best, Javier de los Angeles, to get someone who speaks Nederlands and have them translate that which is one the screen. When I have more time I will try to listen again as I am interested.
Oh, and she did go after this partially, I am sure, to compensate for those leaning tower of Pisa high notes, but Verdi Himself, did do a lot of lobbying for lowering the diapason, back in the day, but no results.
Now it’s too late.
Love the Callas and la Divina clips- thank you la Cieca.
Price’s interview is unusually interesting and in depth for a Diva, but she really seems to struggle with her English doesn’t she? It’s a tendency I’ve noticed with Sutherland and Jones too – going in for an awful lot of complex constructions that they ultimately don’t quite seem to be able to complete!
Price is truly an inspiration here though – that self-belief must have helped her a hell of a lot in her early days.
That circuitous, overambitious verbal style of Leontyne’s style is nothing if not distinctive. Maybe part of it comes from functioning in other languages so much in the course of her work. It’s as if she is presenting herself rather than quite being herself, but — because it’s her — it’s rather adorable. On someone else it could be unbearably pretentious. She somehow retains (in a good sense) an essential simplicity
With Jones, I think the problems arise from the fact that German became her de facto first language. And, of course, any kind of self doubt just isn’t in her make-up, so she doesn’t really care how odd she sounds.
As for Joanie, maybe she just wasn’t very eloquent — or even particularly confident — when speaking formally, but I bet she was great value round a dinner table.
Agreed that with Jones, German seems to have become her first language, so much so that when she speaks in English these days you’re sitting there waiting for the verb until she finally throws it in at the end of the sentence and you suddenly realise what she’s on about. With Sutherland, yes, maybe she wasn’t very eloquent. But with Price, I’m not sure – is my impression that she actually appeared less in Europe, other than the UK, than many other singers of her stature correct? I have this idea that her career was fairly US-centric, so I’m not sure why her English has ended up so mangled. I love the grandiosity of it though.
You’re right, Cocky. She sounds as though she has been tutored in that kind of discourse. It’s heightened self-help speak, almost. But, as you say, you have to love her.
One always gets the feeling — from her singing too — that there is a woman of warmth and humour there. With her diva defences down, I bet she was lots of fun. I’ll never forget someone saying to me once that her singing sounded like she was good in bed!