Soprano singer Mary Violet Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi on this day. Price would go on to become a world-renowned performer, and would be the first African-American to open a season at the Metropolitan Opera in 1961, as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore.

In 1985, she made her farewell performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, singing the title role in Aida.
See a clip below of her dynamic performance.

Leontyne Price is 93 years old today.

 (Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)