Search - Leontyne Price :: Great Opera Scenes

This is the desert island two-CD set, if you're looking for Leontyne. The selection is astounding: Highlights are the astonishing Awakening Scene from R. Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena, an absolute object lesson in Straussian line, arching up to and over a gorgeous high D-flat; a Traviata "Sempre Libera" with amazing agility (and top notes, again) for such a big voice; a "Senza mamma" which is heartbreakingly lovely; and still--after thirty years--the benchmark "Sogno di Doretta" from Puccini's La Rondine. The occasional minus--breathiness, a hollow lower register, lack of interest and intellect, and a truly disgusting Carmen--are to be forgiven. Price never sang any of these roles onstage and may not have been suited for them--but in a way, this is what she was all about. --Robert Levine