Ned Rorem in Paris - 1952

from The Paris Diary: Paris 1952, page 138:

Leontyne Price, beautiful in a gown of blue sequins, sopranoing by heart and tonally (after hours of villainous bearded dodecaphonists), sang Sam Barber's Hermit Songs perfectly but with a trace of Southern accent, Lou Harrison's Rapunzel aria gorgeously but with a suggestion of Southern drawl, Sauguet's La Voyante in elegant French but with a shadow of Southern croon. Her success was so great that she was permitted an encore, and performed an unaccompanied spiritual with no accent at all!
cite as

Ned Rorem, The Paris Diary: Paris 1952. In The Paris Diary and The New York Diary 1951-1961 (New York, 1998), p. 138. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1398018747525 accessed: 10 October, 2024

location of experience: Paris

Listeners

Ned Rorem
Critic, essayist, Composer, Diarist […]
1923-

Listening to

hide composers
'Hermit Songs'
written by Samuel Barber
performed by Leontyne Price
'La Voyante'
written by Henri Sauguet
performed by Leontyne Price
unnamed aria from 'Rapunzel'
written by Lou Harrison
performed by Leontyne Price
unnamed spiritual
written by anon
performed by Leontyne Price

Experience Information

Date/Time 1952
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by iepearson on Sun, 20 Apr 2014 19:32:27 +0100