Product Details

• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Video Artists Int'l
• VHS Release Date: September 26, 2000
• Run Time: 32 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004YS5L
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #276,183 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Etheral singing, July 29, 2003

By 

D. Fair (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Leontyne Price - The Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances [VHS] (VHS Tape)

There is an injustice in the fact that Price, in general, sung live much better than when she was in the studio recording. I own the CD "Leontyne Price: The Ultimate Collection" and the two Il Trovatore arias are really not as amazingly sung as she does in this video. Here, Price has to deal with the oddities of a TV studio with cameras, and workers and yet, her singing has never been better! "Di tale amor" is worlds better than her disc recorded version. Here, the coloratura is finely placed and accurate, where as on my CD -- not so much.

However, what prompted me to write this second review was a listen to the CD's "D'amor sull'ali rosee" compared to this video. In this video, I am at a loss for words as to my disbelief of this person's singing. So effortlessly. The only word that I runs through my mind the whole time while watching is... "perfection." Plain and simple perfection. Glorious floating lyrical lines. That bird-like vibrato that quietly flutters. Soaring high notes. Also, look at her body as she sings --a mastery of body alignment and balance. Her breathing technique is feat to be matched! Notes are just perfect. It's like a bedtime lullaby. What she does with the ending lines, how she breathes a jumping line into this heavenly trill -- only she can do.

The woman just exudes such dignity and prominence into her singing. For a Black woman in 1963 to go on television and blow every other soprano out of the water with her etherial singing is ... wonderful.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's too short!!, June 14, 2002

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leontyne Price - The Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances [VHS] (VHS Tape)

My only criticism of this is that it's too short. This was so amazing that now I must buy the 1982 "Leontyne Price ~ In Concert" video. It's just astounding the amount of absolute vocal and technical control this powerful women has. Spintos aren't suppose to have such easy and floating high notes. Price handles the coloratura astoundingly. She has absolutely conquered this art form.

Something that I noticed was she is so comfortable with the Verdi repertoire, that you'd think that she was an exclusively Verdian soprano, but she's not! You could see her do a video of Puccini rep and think she's a Puccini soprano (unfortunately, this video does not feature Puccini repertoire, but you should hear her Tosca, Mimi, or Madama Butterfly -- all signature roles of hers).

Watching Price perform is an amazingly compelling experience. There are definitely your singers where all their actions and emotions are told to them by the directors and they cling to them like life -- so nothing is REALLY going on upstairs; you just want to close your eyes and listen to the pretty voice. Something about Price's performing just draws you in. Unlike the other sopranos that make you want to go to sleep, Price leaves you wanting more.

This is just a wonderful performance for Price that showcases her best.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful testiment to Ms. Price's artistry, January 26, 2002

By 

Damon Clark (Many, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leontyne Price - The Complete Bell Telephone Hour Performances [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Few soprano have left us with such a breathtakingly beautiful and totally accurate live recording of the two taxing arias from Il Travatore as Leontyne Price. For a larger voiced soprano (soprano spinto to be exact) Leontyne Price shows exceptional flexability and exquisite control in the upper reaches of her voice. Listen to her excellent breath span as she sings both Tacea La Notte and D'amor Sull'ali Rosee. Truly amazing.

I've heard sopranos, both large and small voiced, trudge through these arias-especially D'amor Sull'ali Rosee-without heeding Verdi's carfully placed dynamics. Disaster!! It's alot of screaming! Ms. Price sings pianissimos, diminuendos, and fortes in the appropriate places and where called for she generously gives forth lush full chest voice at the bottom. As for coloratura, she seems to be almost uninhibited by the size of her voice. It is truly amazing to listen to such a voice with it's thrilling virbrato from bottom to top sing perfect trills and almost seamless, beautiful cadenzas.

Ms. Price will be forever remembered as the difinitive Aida of her day. Why?? Well, listen to Ritorna Vincitor. It is sheer exquisite beauty, dramatically sound and yet every note in place. The same can be said for the seletctions Adriana Lecouvreur and La Forza Del Destino. Leontyne Price, whether singing lyrically, dramatically, plucking out difficult coloratura passages, or trilling us with flawless high pianissimi, truly is a marvel of vocal perfection. This is prime buy. I would encourage anyone whether an opera lover or not to buy this VHS. It's truly worth it.