Opera Singing Models in the Second Half of the 20th Century. Leontyne Price and Maria Slătinaru-Nistor

Abstract

Considering that one of the artists with an exceptional national and international career, Maria Slătinaru-Nistor, celebrates her 85th birthday this year, we intend to celebrate this event in a special way, by reminding the already known biography or singing career information and at the same time by focusing on her opera singing career through a comparative approach with the distinguished figure of another contemporary singer, Leontyne Price, in a commentary on a representative score from the verismo repertoire, namely Floria Tosca’s aria in Act II (Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca). Therefore, in this paper we will sketch the portraits of the two sopranos, Leontyne Price and Maria Slătinaru-Nistor, in order to identify similarities and differences in their approach to the aria in question, with the aim of demonstrating one particular critical approach, according to which Maria Slătinaru-Nistor’s artistic personality is a natural continuation of Leontyne Price’s.