This special Juneteenth performance features world-famous Oklahoma soprano Leona Mitchell singing “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess by George and Ira Gershwin. She is accompanied by Lyndon Meyer on the piano.
Along with Leontyne Price, Kathleen Battle, Martina Arroyo, and the late Jessye Norman, Leona Mitchell is considered to be one of the greatest sopranos of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She was a leading soprano at the Metropolitan Opera of New York for 18 seasons, and toured all the great opera houses in the world.
Mitchell appeared with Tulsa Opera in 1982 when she sang the role of Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore and in 1985 in the title role of Aida. Tulsa audiences welcomed Mitchell most recently in February 2017, when she returned to the Tulsa Opera to star in Puccini to Pop.
“Summertime” is one of the most famous arias from Porgy and Bess, and has become a much-recorded jazz standard since it was originally composed in 1934.
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