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Born February 10, 1927, in Laurel, MS
When Leontyne Price debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1961, she received a rapturous 42-minute ovation for her performance as Leonora in Il trovatore. The seventh Black person to make a Metropolitan debut, she was the first to achieve worldwide status as a prima donna assoluta. Price gave her farewell performance of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera in 1985. During her career of almost a quarter century, she received major honors including 13 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Kennedy Center Honors.