Phrases took on a seductive sinuousness that coaxed James McCracken, an otherwise gross and insensitive Radames, to try for nuances of tone and volume. The tone here was genuinely buttery, carefully produced but firmly under control and recognizably Price-like. The celebration at the end of the evening went on for 25 minutes, which adds up to a lot of cheering, bouquet throwing and confetti strewing.Īctually, Miss Price's singing during her Nile Scene duet with Radames produced even subtler artistry than her big aria, though to far less noisy applause, as she cajoled her lover to desert to the Ethiopian cause.
It had come primed to cheer the artist on the occasion of her 193d Metropolitan performance (44 as A"ida) and let her know it appreciated her career. The audience made clear that it loved every masterly gesture, too.
She rang all the classic changes, from the hands held up in prayerful gratitude, to the uplifted then downcast eyes, to the ultimate stroke of sinking to a knee. Her handling of the prolonged outbreak of approval at the conclusion of ''O patria mia'' was nothing less than a master class in the art of the diva. It was a sentiment-soaked evening from the start, studded with long, affectionate ovations and curtain calls that Miss Price bathed in luxuriously while ''Live From the Met'' television cameras recorded the occasion from virtually every corner of the house. It was, intermittently but often enough to make the evening a memorable event, the singing of an artist of distinctive vocal timbre and personality. In her most taxing aria, ''O patria mia,'' there were powerful reminders of the Price that we remember best and want to remember, a Price beyond pearls. Happy to say, Thursday night's performance of ''A"ida'' at the Metropolitan, billed in the program as ''Leontyne Price's farewell to opera,'' might just as well have been entitled ''Patience Rewarded.'' The 57-year-old soprano took an act or two to warm to her work, but what she delivered in the Nile Scene turned out to be well worth the wait. The farewell appearances of great singers are generally exercises in patience for their admirers.
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