Price Margaret Berenice, *13 April 1941 Tredegar near Blackwood (Monmoutshire), † 28 January 2011 Ceibwr Bay (Great Britain), Welsh singer (soprano). From 1956, she studied at Trinity College in London under the supervision of Ch. Kennedy Scott, then sang in the Ambrosian Singers choir. In the 1962/63 season, she made her debut at the Welsh National Opera in the role of Cherubino in W.A. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Her first success came when she replaced T. Berganza in the same role at Covent Garden (1963). Since then, she often performed there as a guest, and since 1970 regularly (including in the title role in V. Bellini’s Norma, 1985), collaborating with J. Lockhart, a conductor and pianist-accompanist, who played a major role in the development of her artistic personality. From the 1970s, Price permanently cooperated with the Welsh National Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where she settled and received the title of Bayerische Kammersängerin. She sang at the Glyndebourne Festival (Constance in The Abduction from the Seraglio and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte by Mozart, 1968, 1971–72), at the English Opera Group (Titania in B. Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, G. F. Haendel’s Acis and Galatea, 1967) and the San Francisco Opera (Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Anusia in G. Verdi’s Falstaff, 1969).
She achieved triumphant success as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni during performances in Cologne (1971) in the Mozart cycle directed by J.-P. Ponnelle. From then on, she was considered the most talented performer of Mozart roles in her generation. She guest-starred at the Lyric Opera in Chicago (Fiordiligi, 1972) and from 1973 at the Paris Opera (including the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro). In 1973, she made her first appearance at the Staatsoper in Vienna and subsequently sang on the most important opera stages in the German-speaking world. In 1975, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival (Constanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio), and in 1976 at the Metropolitan Opera House (the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello). She performed these roles again in 1985 in the opera’s own production. In addition to her Mozart roles, her most acclaimed performances were in Verdi’s operas, especially Desdemona in Otello and Elizabeth in Don Carlos. Over the years, Price gradually gave up performing in opera houses and devoted herself to performing the lieder repertoire, gaining international recognition in this field.
She gave numerous recitals (including several times in Poland). Price’s recordings (RCA, Decca, DG, EMI, Hyperion) include songs, oratorios by L. van Beethoven, J. Brahms, E. Elgar, G. Mahler and R. Vaughan Williams, operas by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini (Turandot), and the title role in R. Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (conducted by C. Kleiber), which Price never performed on stage. In 1982, Price received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and in 1993 a knighthood. In 1999, she ended her career and returned to Wales.
