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Jesse Norman's Accent

She's from Augusta, Georgia but sounds like she's Audrey Hepburn or the Princess Royal.

WTF.

by Anonymousreply 94August 19, 2019 6:23 AM

Please post a link, OP.

TIA

by Anonymousreply 1May 31, 2014 12:05 AM

Look at what Callas did with her Noo Yawk accent.

by Anonymousreply 2May 31, 2014 12:06 AM

Who do these uppity negroes think they are!

by Anonymousreply 3May 31, 2014 12:18 AM

The music reviewers always mentioned "regal" when discussing her stage appearance. Such affectations are really laughable, we know they are not white, so drop the act.

by Anonymousreply 4May 31, 2014 12:35 AM

Only white folks talk like that on a regular basis? She sounds like she wanted to get rid of the hick/country southern accent and took on a vaguely European aristocratic accent. Andre Leon Tally and Tina Turner do the same thing. ALT is from S. Carolina and Miss Anna Mae Bullock is from Nut Bush, TN. They ain't never going back and I don't blame them.

by Anonymousreply 5May 31, 2014 12:41 AM

Andre Leon Talley is a huge joke.

by Anonymousreply 6May 31, 2014 12:44 AM

She is a true DIVA, and can get away with shit that other people can't! There should be nothing ordinary about a true diva, not her clothes or her manner of speech.

If she wants to talk like Eartha Kitt, more power to her.

by Anonymousreply 7May 31, 2014 12:46 AM

How strange, OP. Normally opera singers are known for being totally unaffected and authentic - it's the very nature of their art!

by Anonymousreply 8May 31, 2014 1:06 AM

I see nothing affected about her speech.

by Anonymousreply 9May 31, 2014 1:15 AM

She sounds fabulous.

by Anonymousreply 10May 31, 2014 1:17 AM

At least spell my name right, bitch! Now I know what that cunt Anne Hathaway has to put up with.

by Anonymousreply 11May 31, 2014 1:19 AM

Jessye is a bit on the pretentious side. But good diction is a must as an opera singer. Her German, French and Italian are impeccable. .. Callas left New York as an adolescent. She had no Noo Yawk accent. Get your facts straight. Her English was kind of mid-Atlantic.

by Anonymousreply 12May 31, 2014 1:20 AM

And if she spoke with a thick Southern accent with black speech patterns, you nasty white queens would be finding fault with that. Shut up cuntfaces, and show Miss Norman some respect. She's spent a large portion of her life surrounded by white folks - after all, it is opera. And a lot of those whites are not American, thank God. So I'm not surprised to hear her speech patterns sound the way that they do. Unlike Madonna or Gwynnie, who seemed to develop their accents overnight.

by Anonymousreply 13May 31, 2014 1:21 AM

OP here: she had betta know her place. I don't like them proper talkin' Negroes.

by Anonymousreply 14May 31, 2014 1:24 AM

After 10 posts could we at least notify the OP that it is "Jessye Norman," unless the OP is bitching about someone else.

And as for the accent, she has acquired the same "grand opera grands" that Leontyne Price developed.

The dead (finally) Maya Angelou had the most infamous non-opera version of the malady, although she would have reminded you instantly that she WAS a singer and COULD have been the greatest opera singer in the world had she not found a greater calling in serving the world as she did. I have a sense that hearing Angelou pronounce "calamari" would have induced vomiting in any person sensitive to inauthentic, smug and pretentious self-glorification.

Compared to that preening twat, Miss Norman is a paragon of natural and down-to-earth communication.

by Anonymousreply 15May 31, 2014 1:28 AM

Rap accents are affected, too. I'd rather have opera affected.

by Anonymousreply 16May 31, 2014 1:38 AM

Wow, R15, you really needa get laid. Or are you too fugly? Chill out, faggot!!

by Anonymousreply 17May 31, 2014 1:40 AM

[quote]Compared to that preening twat, Miss Norman is a paragon of natural and down-to-earth communication.

In a documentary about opera divas, Norman told a funny story about getting in a New York cab, finding the blaring rap music intolerable, and asking the driver if he could lower the volume just a bit.

[quote]He said, "Whazzamatta ya don like myuuzik?" I said no.

It was definitely a down-to-earth moment (and her accent was impeccable). I really like her.

by Anonymousreply 18May 31, 2014 1:41 AM

I speak with impeccable diction as well.

by Anonymousreply 19May 31, 2014 2:58 AM

Madonna can't sing a three hour opera and fill a hall with her un-amplified vice though

by Anonymousreply 20May 31, 2014 3:04 AM

It's the same with Jessye Norman, R20. Her un-amplified vice was never a big seller. Until you mentioned it, there was never a serious vice discussion about her.

by Anonymousreply 21May 31, 2014 3:11 AM

[quote] The music reviewers always mentioned "regal" when discussing her stage appearance. Such affectations are really laughable, we know they are not white, so drop the act.

She doesn't sound like any 'white' person i've ever encountered. It is a put-on for sure but it's uniquely hers.

by Anonymousreply 22May 31, 2014 3:21 AM

R21, vice? Are you a sinner-man?

by Anonymousreply 23May 31, 2014 3:29 AM

R23, check with R20. He's the vice squad tonight.

by Anonymousreply 24May 31, 2014 3:43 AM

[quote]He said, "Whazzamatta ya don like myuuzik?" I said no.

Ms. Norman should have told the cab driver, "But daaaarling, that's NOT music!"

Then, she should have started to sing the most intense opera character she ever performed....then, hopefully, the fucking cab driver's ears would have started to bleed!

Most every rap 'song' sounds the same.

by Anonymousreply 25May 31, 2014 3:46 AM

Has she ever had a boyfriend? Or girlfriend (though that seems unlikely)? Her pillow talk must be something.

by Anonymousreply 26May 31, 2014 1:47 PM

I've had a queenz accent my whole life. My whole family does. I took diction lessons a few years ago and lost it. I'm not pretentious or trying to be something I'm not I simply wanted to be taken more seriously when I speak.

by Anonymousreply 27May 31, 2014 1:54 PM

Ms. Norman earned her accent long ago.

by Anonymousreply 28May 31, 2014 1:57 PM

Good for you R27. But I bet you don't sound like the Duchess of Somesuch. And Jessye does. She took her diction lessons way too far.

by Anonymousreply 29May 31, 2014 2:27 PM

Live entertainment sorts of the old school always did that -- remember Coral Browne's Vera in Auntie Mame? Patrick says something about "the English lady" and Mame says she's not English, but from Buffalo, so she had to "do something."

by Anonymousreply 30May 31, 2014 3:51 PM

I love him, but the poster child for vocal affectation is northern-sounding Stephen Colbert.

Born and raised in South Carolina!

by Anonymousreply 31May 31, 2014 3:54 PM

Could someone please ring for the real DL opera queens to join this discussion.

by Anonymousreply 32May 31, 2014 4:04 PM

I always loved her ridiculous way of speaking.

It's like the Roz Chast New Yorker cartoon, "The Man Who Was Loved for His Lack of Lack of pretense," and there's a man with a pencil thin mustache, a monocle, an ascot and a smoking jacket happily saying, "Let's only speak French for a while!"

by Anonymousreply 33May 31, 2014 4:06 PM

She's an opera singer who sings in multiple languages and is constantly in different parts of the world. Why wouldn't someone who manipulates her voice constantly create the accent she choices for her speaking voice? Particularly if she doesn't care for her native accent. Makes perfect sense to me

by Anonymousreply 34May 31, 2014 4:09 PM

Thank you,R34, I can now move on to other threads

by Anonymousreply 35May 31, 2014 4:17 PM

I was about to say something similar, R34. It is easy to lose something as superficial a regional accent when you have made great effort not only to learn several languages but also how to maximize your ability to create and control sound. Regional accents are the product of sloppy speech habits. Once you have eliminated those habits there is no reason to revert to them.

by Anonymousreply 36May 31, 2014 4:20 PM

[quote]she choices for her speaking voice

Oooh, DEE-ah!

by Anonymousreply 37May 31, 2014 4:20 PM

Diva Diva, brava brava !! Were I a sculptor I would sculpt your face and cast in bronze. What glorious beauty. I love your passion, your regalness. Diva Brava.

by Anonymousreply 38May 31, 2014 6:48 PM

Thank you R34 & R36 for proving that there are, in fact still a few sane, articulate and educated posters on DL.

by Anonymousreply 39May 31, 2014 7:06 PM

r36, ALL human speech is accented. There is no such thing as a non-accented language.

Jessye Norman speaks with an accent of her own invention. Maybe no one else in the world speaks like that, but it is still an accent.

by Anonymousreply 40May 31, 2014 7:11 PM

OK, major opera queen here; I have seen Norman perform nearly 30 times.

NOBODY alive today can touch the grandeur she brings to the stage, whether in an opera or (especially) the recital stage.

Her recording of the Strauss 4 Last Songs is paradise, her Wagner is beyond reproach. Even her crossover albums are jewels. Her (first) Christmas CD is glorious.

.......that being said, regarding Jessye Norman's "accent", I will defer to Harlem-born Metropolitan Opera DIVA Martina Arroyo, who upon hearing Miss Norman's speak off-stage replied:

"Would you like some chitlins with that honey?"

by Anonymousreply 41May 31, 2014 7:36 PM

A friend of mine work for Deutsche Grammaphone for years. He got to know the likes of Jamie Levine, Jessye Norman and the incomparable Kathleen battle, incomparable in being difficult to work with.

I release party for their duet album of spirituals, someone had read a review of Kathie's of a performance she had done in Europe, the review mentioned that she was the black American soprano, Kathleen Battle. Friend related that when Jessye Norman heard this she said, "black soprano? That's news to her!"

by Anonymousreply 42May 31, 2014 7:51 PM

A friend of mine worked *

by Anonymousreply 43May 31, 2014 7:54 PM

I work with lots and lots of opera singers and this is far from the worst example of "Received Pronunciation"

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by Anonymousreply 44May 31, 2014 8:02 PM

LOL André Leon Talley is a rude, ignorant, vulgar lowlife and an olympic butt kisser who wants to be the Belle Époque lady that lives in his head.

by Anonymousreply 45May 31, 2014 8:03 PM

She's not aging well, is she?

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by Anonymousreply 46May 31, 2014 8:08 PM

She's still big, but she's lost a lot of weight (which is great for her health). Unfortunately, she was SO big for so long that her skin got all stretched out, and there are those unsightly folds of skin around her face now.

by Anonymousreply 47May 31, 2014 8:14 PM

BONJOUR, R45!

by Anonymousreply 48May 31, 2014 9:01 PM

There was a hilarious profile on her in Vanity fair about 25 years ago where she kept saying the most ridiculously affected things, but they were so charmingly over-the-top they made me love her all the more.

One was about her time at Howard University in Dc in the early 60s: "All the major civil rights activists were around at that time, so--oh la la!--it was a very exciting place to be!"

The other was when she was describing her big operatic influences in her younger life: "I was mad, mad, mad! for the voice of Leontyne Price!"

by Anonymousreply 49May 31, 2014 9:01 PM

Ah, and we should all be mad for the voice of Leontyne Price. Norman has good taste. R34 got it right.

Jesse Norman has been effected and to some she seems affected. Opera exists in rare air and the most educated artistic discipline. Let her breathe and speak.

by Anonymousreply 50May 31, 2014 10:17 PM

Speaking of affected R50 . . .

by Anonymousreply 51May 31, 2014 10:31 PM

r46, TBH, I was more shocked by Kathleen Battle.

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by Anonymousreply 52June 1, 2014 5:25 AM

Plenty of white opera singers had regional accents before they went on to greater fame on stage.

A white acquaintance is an opera singer, from a small hick town. He got rid of his accent and these days he sounds quite posh indeed.

Don't hate on Norman's speech patterns. It's what opera singers do ... and should do, frankly. A little taste never hurt anyone.

by Anonymousreply 53June 1, 2014 5:33 AM

r53, RP to the point of parody is pretentious and is in itself bad taste.

Dissolving a regional accent and speaking properly is not the same thing.

by Anonymousreply 54June 1, 2014 5:49 AM

[quote]Jesse Norman has been effected

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

by Anonymousreply 55June 1, 2014 7:11 AM

R54, it isn't, but going a bit over-the-top, being a bit grandiose, being a bit operatic one might say, can be fun

by Anonymousreply 56June 1, 2014 3:26 PM

OP and others, it is Jessye, not Jesse

by Anonymousreply 57June 1, 2014 3:32 PM

I saw an interview with her yesterday, and Norman looked fine. She didn't look excessively wrinkled or folded to me.

by Anonymousreply 58June 1, 2014 3:43 PM

R15, what a dreadful comment about Maya Angelou. She was an incredible individual and, given her early life, she was an inspiration to many.

by Anonymousreply 59June 1, 2014 3:45 PM

Honestly!

It's wonderful that gay men can now affect (or not affect) all manner of pedestrian, mundane averageness. Yet there was a time, and it wasn't very long ago, that the only people brave enough to be out where those who presented a marvelous creation to the world. Who remembers those proud, magnificent, haughty queens, pages and bookworms?

Do you not love a person who has the courage, the desire and the psychic wherewithal to present an outward persona that is in keeping with their inner resplendence?

Must we all conform? Must we ALL be boring and plain like so many quaker eldresses? I applaud Jessye Norman and every diva like her with the courage to be the true QUEEN she knows herself to be.

Life is short. Why be a peasant?

by Anonymousreply 60June 1, 2014 3:54 PM

I would suspect it was early elocution lessons - not uncommon for opera singers.

by Anonymousreply 61June 1, 2014 3:57 PM

[quote]Who remembers those proud, magnificent, haughty queens, pages and bookworms?

some of those were insufferable bores too. Jessye was never one of them though.

by Anonymousreply 62June 1, 2014 4:02 PM

Her accent was in fabulous form last night during her Charlie Rose Interview.

Her pronunciation of the word "obelisk" was TO DIE FOR.

by Anonymousreply 63June 17, 2014 6:17 PM

R63, Marry me!!!!

by Anonymousreply 64June 17, 2014 6:21 PM

Did it ever occur to any of you brainiacs that the purity of vowel sounds is key to the voice production required of an opera singer?

OP is an idiot.

by Anonymousreply 65June 18, 2014 9:40 PM

She enunciates. Maybe she over-enunciates, if anything. But there's no accent that she's putting on.

by Anonymousreply 66June 18, 2014 10:28 PM

I want to show up at work one day and start speaking like this.

By they way, what bone structure!

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by Anonymousreply 67September 30, 2014 7:25 AM

By the way!!!

by Anonymousreply 68September 30, 2014 7:34 AM

It's the African American Diva accent.

Norman, Price, Bumbry all had it.

By the way, saw a recent pic of Norman. Sh'es lost lots of weight.

by Anonymousreply 69September 30, 2014 4:32 PM

Nell Rankin didn't have it. She always had a soft Alabama accent when she spoke.

by Anonymousreply 70September 30, 2014 4:36 PM

I ADORE that interview!

by Anonymousreply 71September 30, 2014 4:43 PM

"What do you mean, she doesn't 'work in the role'?"

by Anonymousreply 72September 30, 2014 4:53 PM

Eloquent, articulate, expressive, fascinating, magnificent opera diva!!!!

by Anonymousreply 73October 1, 2014 2:40 AM

She's a prize

by Anonymousreply 74October 1, 2014 12:50 PM

You think Jessye gets nasty like Janet?

by Anonymousreply 75October 1, 2014 6:24 PM

Beverly Sills was a girl from Brooklyn and while she may have ditched the accent, she didn't have that affected speech at all.

by Anonymousreply 76October 1, 2014 6:29 PM

What [R73] said and the rest of you can go fuck your racist assholes

by Anonymousreply 77October 1, 2014 6:31 PM

Norman like Callas spent much time in Europe hence the what sounds to our ears a somewhat affected accent. This is not diffucult to pick up if you are studying other languages in foreign coutries as others have pointed out. There are plenty of Callas interviews and her accent as well as a bit of the posh element to it.

Listening to Norman speak as well as sing is a pleasure.

I think that Sills, if I am not mistaken, spent most her time training and singing in the US.

by Anonymousreply 78October 1, 2014 6:57 PM

OP's real question is; why isn't Norman a walking, talking, breathing stereotype? Why aren't we all walking, talking, breathing stereotypes? Apparently, OP is a walking, talking, breathing, stereotype and so everyone else must be too.

by Anonymousreply 79October 1, 2014 7:20 PM

[quote]She's still big, but she's lost a lot of weight (which is great for her health).

Wasn't the weight loss connected to lupus? Not quite a boon overall, I'd say.

by Anonymousreply 80October 1, 2014 7:28 PM

Jesse. Oh, dear.

by Anonymousreply 81October 1, 2014 7:31 PM

That interview makes me feel uh, "special" inside

by Anonymousreply 82October 1, 2014 7:48 PM

When music reviewers state she is "regal" on stage, those are code words for: she just stands and sings, does not bother to even attempt acting.

by Anonymousreply 83October 1, 2014 8:04 PM

Yes, "regal on stage" means fat and wears flowing robes, doesn't move much.

by Anonymousreply 84October 1, 2014 8:18 PM

R63 here - thanks for posting that interview!

I ADORE Jesse Norman - I have seen her perform over 20 times and I am even taking my Mother, who is also a fan, to see and hear Jesse perform at her upcoming Carnegie Hall Concert on St. Valentine's Day.

That being said - in this BBC interview, her initial pronunciation of cosTUME was also TO DIE FOR!!!

by Anonymousreply 85October 1, 2014 8:35 PM

Jessye, jessye, jessye!!!

by Anonymousreply 86October 2, 2014 3:16 AM

"I ADORE Jesse Norman"

Not enough to know how to spell her name.

You too, OP

by Anonymousreply 87October 2, 2014 3:19 AM

She's a skinny Minnie

by Anonymousreply 88October 2, 2014 3:25 AM

Give me Jessye's faux-regality to that bitch Kathleen Battle's valley girl imitation any day.

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by Anonymousreply 89October 2, 2014 3:32 AM

Bitch, please!

by Anonymousreply 90October 2, 2014 4:17 AM

I want jessye on A Friday.

by Anonymousreply 91October 3, 2014 8:16 PM

I'll never forget seeing her as Kundry in "Parsifal" opposite Placido Domingo at the Met.

She was incredibly fat they couldn't even realistically put her on stage with Domingo because she would have become winded just walking around, and she was two or three times his physical size (and he is not a slender man!). So they put her on a kind of separately-lit platform off to the side of the stage, while he was on the stage itself, and they sang back and forth to each other. She never actually moved her feet--she just would sway her enormous body towards his general direction in moments of yearning for him while she sang.

It was completely ridiculous. yet even so, I had never heard the part more thrillingly sung. Even all the way up in the Family Circle, her voice projected so beautifully it was like she was singing just ten feet away--I cannot say that about any other singer I have heard at the Met, not even such a big-voiced star as Deborah Voigt (in her tubby heyday).

by Anonymousreply 92October 3, 2014 8:22 PM

This interview with Jessye is fascinating, entertaining and interesting. And the famed accent is on full display. As, yes, regal and, to some ears I suppose, affected the accent is, she speaks with such unforced passion and empathy for the under-served and under-represented, that it doesn't really matter. When she speaks -- quite movingly -- about her interactions with Marian Anderson and likened the experience of meeting Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama -- speaking of "certain people who have a glow and an aura around them that is so peaceful; people whose spirits are so without tension..."

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by Anonymousreply 93August 19, 2019 6:06 AM

Ich spreche kein Englisch.

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by Anonymousreply 94August 19, 2019 6:23 AM
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