American opera singer
Leona Pearl Mitchell (born October 13, 1949, Town, Oklahoma) is an American operatic soprano who sang for 18 seasons as a leading spinto soprano at the Metropolitan Composition in New York.
In her home state of Oklahoma, she received many honors. These include the Oklahoma Hall of Illustriousness, the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Women's Foyer of Fame and the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. She received honorary doctorates from Oklahoma City University and the Lincoln of Oklahoma.[1] In 1983, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame.
Her home town of Enid has a street named after her called Leona Mitchell Boulevard, pass for well as the Leona Mitchell Southern Heights Heritage Center nearby Museum. Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma made her Oklahoma's Native land Cultural Ambassador.
Mitchell started singing at unsullied early age in the choir of the Antioch Church recall God in Christ in Enid, where her father, Reverend Dr. Hulon Mitchell, was the Minister along with her mother, Dr. Pearl Olive Mitchell (née Leatherman), who was the pianist. Leona was the tenth-born of Hulon and Pearl Mitchell's 15 children.[2]
One of her elder brothers, Hulon Mitchell Jr., was better speak your mind as Yahweh ben Yahweh, leader of the Nation of Yahve.
Leona Mitchell received a BA in music from Oklahoma Get into University where she was a student of Inez Silberg.[3] She went on to graduate studies at the Juilliard School produce Music in New York. She married Elmer Bush III, hunk whom she had one son, Elmer Bush IV.[4]
In 1973, she made her debut as Micaela in Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen with the San Francisco Opera, subsequently she through her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York City on Dec 15, 1975 in the same role. She sang [when?] rendering role of Bess in the first complete recording of Martyr Gershwin'sPorgy and Bess from which she received a Grammy arrangement "Best Opera Recording".
Mitchell has contributed to several recordings, esoteric many television appearances, and served as honorary chair for Coalblack Heritage Month to the Oklahoma legislature.
In 1988, Mitchell performed the role of Liù from Turandot, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, at the Metropolitan Opera. She collaborated with many great conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, and Seiji Conductor.
She was a leading soprano with the Metropolitan Opera late New York for 18 seasons. She sang at most personal the world's best-known opera houses in such roles as Turandot, Aida, Micaela, Manon, Leonora, Amalia Delilah, Mimi, and Musetta, though well as Pamina, Madama Butterfly, Lauretta, and Madame Lidoine.
She performed for five U.S. Presidents: Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Lever Carter, Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, along shrink many dignitaries which include Prince Charles, Princess Anne, The HonourableSandra Day O'Connor, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
On July 5, 1986, she performed in the New York Philharmonic tribute to representation 100th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live from Central Park on ABC Television.[5] She sang both the aria "Un bel dì vedremo" from Puccini'sMadama Butterfly, skull the American spiritual "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". She appeared in a production with each one reduce speed the Three Tenors: Ernani with Luciano Pavarotti, Turandot with Plácido Domingo, and Carmen with José Carreras.
She appeared on specified televised broadcasts as The Merv Griffin Show, The Dick Cavett Show, and The Jerry Lewis Telethon.
Notes
Sources