Episode 438. Leontyne Price Sings Richard Strauss Heroines
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Last week the opera world joined in unanimous celebration as Leontyne Price celebrated her 99th birthday. Though I’m a trifle late to the party, I do have a Price episode today, and one with a twist, featuring the beloved diva in a repertoire she only occasionally performed: the operas of Richard Strauss. Today let’s imagine ourselves back in the 1960s and early 1970s in an alternate universe, one in which Leontyne Price was one of the leading interpreters of the operas of Richard Strauss. Fortunately, there are enough live and studio recordings for us to create such a universe: over the course of her career, Price performed and recorded Strauss repertoire ranging from Guntram, his first opera from 1893, through his penultimate opera, Die Liebe der Danae, completed in 1940, but first officially premiered posthumously in 1952. The excerpts heard range from an early British radio recording of Danae in 1959, through a remarkably viable performance of the final scene of Salome from as late as1986. She is also heard in an extended live excerpt from Ariadne auf Naxos, the one Strauss role she performed onstage. I have remarked repeatedly elsewhere that the music of Strauss seemed to bring out the very best in Leontyne Price, and that is certainly true of the performances heard here, tantalizing teasers of what might have been, had she chosen to explore more of these roles onstage.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward: Summertime (Porgy and Bess). Leontyne Price, John Gutman, ABC Symphony Orchestra [live New York Ritz [now Walter Kerr] Theater 06.IV.1953]
Richard Strauss: Fass’ ich sie bang, sehnsüchtgen Traumes (Guntram). Leontyne Price, Erich Leinsdorf, New Philharmonia Orchestra [1973]
Richard Strauss, Joseph Gregor [after Hugo von Hofmannsthal]: Leuchtet mein Traum [Finale to Act 1] (Die Liebe der Danae). Leontyne Price, Lloyd Strauss-Smith, Peter Herman Adler, BBC Symphony Orchestra [BBC radio recording, first broadcast 27.V.59]
Richard Strauss, Oscar Wilde [translated Hedwig Lachmann]: Ah! Du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund (Salome). Leontyne Price, Herbert Blomstedt, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra [live San Francisco 03.IX.86]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Da geht er hin (Der Rosenkavalier). Leontyne Price, Erich Leinsdorf, New Philharmonia Orchestra [1974]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Ach! Wo war ich?… Ein Schönes war… Es gibt ein Reich (Ariadne auf Naxos). Leontyne Price, Ruth Welting, Dale Duesing, Robert Johnson, Alexander Malta, Eleanor Bergquist, Pamela South, Gwendolyn Jones, János Ferencsik, San Francisco Opera Orchestra [live San Francisco 28.X.77]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Weh, mein Mann! [Erwachensszene der Kaiserin] (Die Frau ohne Schatten). Leontyne Price, Erich Leinsdorf, New Philharmonia Orchestra [1973]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Zweite Brautnacht (Die ägyptische Helena). Leontyne Price, Carlo Franci, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks [live München 27.I.68]