Mitchell, Leona
Mitchell, Leona
Mitchell, Leona, talented black American soprano; b. Enid, Okla., Oct. 13, 1948. She was one of 15 children; her father, a Pentecostal minister, played several instruments by ear; her mother was a good amateur pianist. She sang in local church choirs, then received a scholarship to Oklahoma City Univ., where she obtained her B.Mus. degree in 1971. She made her operatic debut in 1972 as Micaëla in Carmen with the San Francisco Spring Opera Theater. She then received the $10,000 Opera America grant (1973), which enabled her to study with Ernest St. John Metz in Los Angeles. On Dec. 15, 1975, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Micaëla; subsequently sang there as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Musetta in La Bohème; she won critical acclaim for her portrayal of Leonora in La forza del destino in 1982. In 1987 she appeared as Massenet’s Salome in Nice. She sang the 3 leading soprano roles in Puccini’s Trittico at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1988. She sang Verdi’s Elvira in Parma in 1990. In 1992 she appeared as Aida with the New Israeli Opera. She portrayed Strauss’s Ariadne in Sydney in 1997.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire