[1] Born in Laurel, Mississippi, Price attended Central State University and then the Juilliard School (graduating cum laude), where she had her operatic debut as Mistress Ford in Verdi's Falstaff.

Having heard the performance, Virgil Thomson engaged her in Four Saints in Three Acts, prior to embarking on her debut tour; she also starred (alongside her husband William Warfield) in a successful revival of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

Her 1955 televised performance of Puccini's Tosca, plus appearances at the San Francisco Opera as Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and Aida, brought her to international attention.

However, the "middle period" operas of Verdi remain her greatest triumph; Aida, the Leonoras of Il trovatore and La forza del destino, as well as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera.

[7] Meanwhile, at the age of eight, she had begun visiting the home of Alexander and Elizabeth Chisholm, a wealthy white family for whom Leontyne's aunt worked as a laundress.

[7] Robeson was impressed by Price's voice, and—knowing she was aiming to enroll at Juilliard—worked with the Central State administrators to host a benefit concert to help raise money for her tuition.

[14] Fresh off the plane from Paris, she sang the opening performance of Porgy and Bess at the State Fair of Texas on June 9, 1952, receiving rave reviews.

[citation needed] On the eve of the European tour, Price married William Warfield, her Porgy and a noted bass-baritone concert singer.

The New York City Center Opera under Laszlo Halasz had hired the first Black singers in leading roles in the mid-1940s, starting with Camilla Williams and Todd Duncan.

[citation needed] The Metropolitan Opera recognized Price's potential by inviting her to sing "Summertime" at a "Met Jamboree" fund-raiser on April 6, 1953, at the Ritz Theater on Broadway.

[citation needed] In March 1955, Price was taken by her agent to audition at Carnegie Hall for the Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, who was touring with the Berlin Philharmonic.

In Vienna, she made her first full opera recording for RCA, singing Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.

[citation needed] That fall, Price made her Chicago Lyric Opera debut as Liu in Puccini's Turandot with Birgit Nilsson in the title role, and sang Massenet's Thaïs.

The outburst was soon forgotten, and Price and Corelli sang together often, at the Met, in Vienna, in Salzburg, and once, for Karajan's version of Bizet's Carmen, in the recording studio.

In recognition of her extraordinary first season at the Met, Time magazine put her on its cover, and ran a profile under the headline, "A voice like a banner flying".

[22] After several weeks off, Price repeated Puccini's La fanciulla del West and then, after a Butterfly in December, which ended with the singer in tears, cleared her schedule and took a respite in Rome.

However, the opera was considered a failure by many, who found the sequence of scenes confusing, the Shakespearean text unintelligible, and director Franco Zeffirelli's production suffocatingly elaborate.

The chaotic final rehearsals, along with scenes of Price's beautiful singing, were captured by cinema verite director Robert Drew in a documentary on The Bell Telephone Hour, The New Met: Countdown to Curtain.

In 1976, she was at the heart of a long-promised new production of Aida at the Met, with James McCracken as Radames and Marilyn Horne as Amneris, directed by John Dexter.

[citation needed] In 1976, after almost a decade, she renewed her partnership with Karajan in a performance of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter invited her to sing at the White House for the visit of Pope John Paul II and at the state dinner after the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords.

The paper's critic Donal Henahan wrote that 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."

[26] Time magazine called her voice "Rich, supple and shining, it was in its prime capable of effortless soaring from a smoky mezzo to the pure soprano gold of a perfectly spun high C."[27] In 21 seasons with the Met, Price gave 201 performances, in 16 roles, in the house and on tour.

[citation needed] Over time, Price's voice became darker and heavier, but the upper register held up extraordinarily well and her conviction and sheer delight in singing always spilled over the footlights.

In 1997, at the suggestion of RCA Victor, she wrote a children's book version of Aida, which became the basis for the hit Broadway musical by Elton John and Tim Rice in 2000.

In 2017, a broadcast Aida (1967), with Bergonzi and Bumbry, was released separately and in a boxed set of live performances from the company's first season at Lincoln Center.

[This quote needs a citation] In his 1983 autobiography, Plácido Domingo writes: "The power and sensuousness of Leontyne's voice were phenomenal—the most beautiful Verdi soprano I have ever heard.

"[40] The sopranos Renée Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jessye Norman, Leona Mitchell, Barbara Bonney, Sondra Radvanovsky, the mezzo-sopranos Janet Baker and Denyce Graves, bass-baritone José van Dam, and the countertenor David Daniels, spoke of Price as an inspiration.

[This quote needs a citation] Others criticized her lack of flexibility in coloratura, and her occasional mannerisms, including scooping or swooping up to high notes, gospel-style.

As Bess, she was praised for her dramatic fire and sensuality, and tapes of the early NBC Opera appearances demonstrate an appealing presence on camera.