Margaret Price facts for kids
Dame Margaret Berenice Price DBE (born April 13, 1941 – died January 28, 2011) was a famous Welsh opera singer. She was known as a soprano, which is a type of female singing voice.
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Growing Up and Early Life
Margaret Price was born in a town called Blackwood in South Wales. When she was four years old, she had surgery on her legs because they were not formed correctly. She felt pain in her legs for her whole life. Margaret also helped care for her younger brother, John, who had a mental handicap. Her family often spent holidays in Moylgrove, a village near the coast.
Her father was a good piano player. He did not want Margaret to have a music career. So, she never went to music festivals called eisteddfods. She planned to become a biology teacher instead. She went to Pontllanfraith Secondary School. When she was 15, her music teacher helped her get an audition with Charles Kennedy Scott. He convinced her to study music at Trinity College of Music in London. He also helped her get a scholarship to pay for it. For several years, Margaret trained as a mezzo-soprano, which is another type of female singing voice.
Margaret Price's Singing Career
After finishing college, Margaret joined a singing group called the Ambrosian Singers. She sang with them on the soundtrack for the movie El Cid in 1961. She did not stay with the group for long. She later said it was hard for her because she was not good at reading music quickly.
Margaret did not become famous through singing competitions. Her father, who now supported her music dreams, wrote to opera houses to get her auditions. In 1962, Margaret Price sang in her first opera. She played the role of Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with the Welsh National Opera.
Becoming a Star at the Royal Opera House
Her father wrote to the Royal Opera House in London in 1962. Margaret auditioned twice but the music director, Georg Solti, said she "lacked charm." However, she was accepted as an understudy, thanks to the casting director Joan Ingpen. An understudy learns a role so they can sing it if the main singer cannot. Margaret became close friends with pianist and conductor James Lockhart.
Solti added a rule to her contract. It said she should never expect to sing lead roles in the main opera house. So, she sang smaller roles as a mezzo-soprano. Her big chance came in 1963. The main singer, Teresa Berganza, cancelled a performance. Margaret, as the understudy, got to sing Cherubino again. This performance made her famous very quickly.
After this, James Lockhart told Margaret to take more singing lessons. He wanted her to improve her voice and develop her high notes. This helped her become one of the most popular sopranos in the 1970s and 1980s.
Performing Around the World
In 1967, Margaret sang with Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group. She performed in Mozart's The Impresario and as Titania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1968, a music critic named Desmond Shawe-Taylor praised her singing. He called it "brilliant, flexible and large scale" when she sang as Constanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Glyndebourne.
Margaret did not like to travel a lot. So, she usually had a "home" stage where she performed for most of the year. First, it was Covent Garden. But from 1971, she made Germany her main base. She started at Cologne Opera and later moved to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. She lived in Munich until she retired in 1999.
Margaret also worked closely with conductor Otto Klemperer. He conducted her first major opera recording. This was the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte. This recording in 1972 made Margaret famous as a specialist in Mozart's music.
Later, Margaret Price performed as a guest singer at many important opera houses. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1985. She sang Desdemona in Verdi's Otello. In 1989, she sang in the Welsh National Opera's show Salome in New York. The Prince and Princess of Wales attended this performance.
Famous Roles and Recordings
Margaret Price was most famous for her roles in Mozart operas. These included Fiordiligi, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the Contessa in The Marriage of Figaro, and Pamina in The Magic Flute. She also sang roles in operas by Verdi, such as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Elisabetta in Don Carlos. Her role as Desdemona in Otello was her first at the Met. She also sang the main role in Aida.
She also performed in operas by Richard Strauss, like Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos. She sang in Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea. Margaret Price was also very active as a lieder singer. Lieder are German art songs. She sang songs by composers like Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Richard Strauss.
During her career, Margaret Price made many recordings of operas and lieder. One of her most famous recordings is as Isolde in Carlos Kleiber's recording of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. She never sang this role on stage. She was given the title Kammersängerin by the Bavarian State Opera, which is a special honor for singers.
Later Life and Retirement
Margaret Price retired to a 160-year-old farmhouse. It was located on Ceibwr Bay near Cardigan, Ceredigion, overlooking Cardigan Bay. There, she successfully raised and showed Golden Retriever dogs. She even had the back seats of her Chrysler car removed to make space for her dogs. She called it her "dogmobile."
She came out of retirement only once. She sang at a Remembrance Day concert at her local church. She later said about it: “It was the most nerve-racking occasion of my life. Never again will I sing in public.”
Death
Margaret Price died on January 28, 2011. She was 69 years old. She passed away from heart failure at her home in Ceibwr.
Awards and Honors
- Bayerische (Bavarian) Kammersängerin (a special German title for opera singers)
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), in 1982
- Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), in 1993 (This means she was given the title "Dame")
See also
In Spanish: Margaret Price para niños
