Above: Justino Diaz and Leontyne Price in Samuel Barber's ANTONY & CLEOPATRA at The Met, 1966
~ Author: Oberon
By chance, I came upon this film of Leontyne Price singing Cleopatra's final aria from Barber's ANTONY & CLEOPATRA at a 1984 concert at Juilliard, conducted by Jorge Mester. Ms. Price's singing here shows some of the vocal idiosyncrasies that crept into her performances as the 1970s progressed into the 1980s. But the sheer sound is glorious, the upper notes sustained, steady, and thrilling. What I love most about her in this brief video is her stillness - she doesn't flail her arms about melodramatically; it's all contained in the music - and her great sense of personal dignity.
Barber wrote Cleopatra's music specifically with Leontyne Price's voice in mind. After the run of performances that opened the New Met in 1966 - of which I attended the last - the opera vanished from the Met repertoire. The composer devised a concert ending for the great final aria so that Ms. Price, and others to follow, might include it in their appearances with symphony orchestras.
A revised version of ANTONY & CLEOPATRA was given at Juilliard in 1975, a performance of which I attended:
The European premiere of the opera (in concert form) took place at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, in 1980. Chicago Lyric Opera gave the opera in 1991 with Richard Cowan and Catherine Malfitano in the title-roles. There was a telecast, which I watched - really impressive - and which you can watch here and here!
In 2009, New York City Opera gave the opera in concert form at Carnegie Hall with Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Lauren Flanigan as Antony and Cleopatra. I was there, and the cumulative effect of the opera was powerful.
Writing about this opera gives me an opportunity to bring forth one of the great rarities from my collection: a performance of the final aria of Cleopatra by mezzo-soprano Beverly Wolff from a concert at Cincinnati in 1971. Martina Arroyo was to have been the vocal soloist that evening, but she was taken ill and Ms. Wolff stepped in on very short notice; musical revisions were made to accommodate the switch from soprano to mezzo-soprano.
Beverly Wolff ANTONY & CLEOPATRA aria Cincinnati 1971
~ Oberon