D'amor sull'ali rosee

January 1961: exactly half a century ago.
John Kennedy is at the helm of the most powerful country on earth.

A poor black girl from the segregated ‘deep South’ of Mississippi makes her debut at the sanctuary of all sanctuaries: The Metropolitan Opera House New York.
She sings Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore (click here).
In those days, a black prima donna on the stage of the Met was something next to sacrilege.
At the end of that performance, however, the audience was seized by a fit of mass hysteria Met had never witnessed before (or after).

Since, Leontyne Price is the sacred “patrona” of the Met.

Η. Χαραλαμπίδης