Leontyne Price sings Verdi’s “Pace, pace, mio Dio“

The great American Soprano Leontyne Price singing “Pace, pace, mio Dio“ from Italian opera La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi (The Power of Fate) – Bell Telephone Hour performances (1967). Ms. Price’s voice has been characterized as “vibrant“, “soaring“ and “a Price beyond pearls“, as well as “genuinely buttery, carefully produced but firmly under control“, with phrases that “took on a seductive sinuousness”. Time magazine called her “Rich, supple and shining, it was in its prime capable of effortlessly soaring from a smoky mezzo to the pure soprano gold of a perfectly spun high C.“ Synopsis: Don Alvaro a young nobleman from South America who has settled in Seville where he is not very well thought of. He falls in love with Donna Leonora, the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava who is determined that she shall marry only a man of the highest origin. Despite knowing her father’s aversion to Alvaro, Leonora is deeply in love with him, and she determines to give up her home and country in order to elope with him. The Marquis unexpectedly discovers Alvaro with Leonora and threatens him with death. And in order to remove any suspicion of Leonora’s purity, Alvaro surrenders himself. As he flings down his pistol, it goes off wounding the Marquis who dies cursing his daughter. “Pace, pace, mio Dio” (Peace, peace, my God) sung in Act 4 – Leonora, outside the cave where she has come to live out her remaining days in repentance. She still loves Alvaro after many years despite the bad things that have happened. She calls upon God to end her suffering.