DEAD! Fat lady has sung for Jessye Norman

Oh nose!

She was a diva.

So young.

We saw her at theSydney Opera House.

She sang well but she did waddle instead of walk. When she turned away from the audience we could see six buttocks beneath the caftan/dress.

Didn't know she was still alive, surprised at her ample weight that the grim reaper hadn't taken her already. She pretty much wore tents if I remember correctly. Great voice though but I think her weight limited her in certain roles, and with that level of obesity stamina and vocal strains start to show.

Did she sing "Samson" at The Met?

Sad.

She was great. One of her greatest recordings: Richard Strauss, "Four Last Songs."

She was so great in her prime. I'm sincerely sad.

Wearing a tent and loving it at France’s bicentennial

Here's a great cut bitches, with La Battle and Jimmy

RIP, Jessye. You were one of the greats.

In a documentary called "Divas," there was a clip of Jessye Norman telling a story about a cab ride in NYC. When she got into the cab, the driver had rap music blaring at excruciating volume. And then:

[quote]I said, "Excuse me, could you please lower the volume a bit?" He said, "Whazzamatta, don ya like music?" I said no.

What was on her iPod?

R9 "Can I have her stuff? At least the flag caftan?"

She had great style: the huge hair and caftans. A fantastic presence.

Was it publicly known that she had a spinal cord injury, as the story said? Was she paralyzed? The story said she died of complications of a spinal cord injury.

But.... But...

Was she lesbian?

"Her recent biography alludes to a proposal from an anonymous French nobleman, but there is no romantic detail."

She didn't forget where she came from and returned often to Augusta, GA. There is a riverside amphitheater there named for her and she founded the Jessye Norman School of the Arts, which runs after-school arts programs in multiple schools around the Augusta metropolitan region, known as the CSRA. Here is a clip from her 1998 Christmas special "Jessye Norman: A Holiday Homecoming" filmed at The First Baptist Church of Augusta. Augusta was proud to have produced both Ms. Norman, the Opera Diva, and the Godfather of Soul James Brown.

She said once that because her German diction was so good many in Germany assumed she was born there and that her father was a black GI.

I wonder what the family plans are for all of her caftans. I can outfit a whole room in beautiful drapery with just one bolt... err.. caftan. Of course... my window treatments will be in memory of her...

One less soprano in the world. RIP sister friend.

Don't look at me!!!

Jessye seemed nice but Kathleen sounds awful.

I thought they hated each other? Well, at least Hurricane Kathleen. She hates everyone.

Just imagine if she and Andre Leon Talley ever got together....

Could put this in the live performance thread too. Amazing Grace.

I don't know why this stuck to my mind, and it may be apocryphal, but I read that Jessye Norman and Leontyne Price were discussing Miles Davis and one said to the other something like "That little nigg*a is sexy". The other agreed and they had a laugh.

^And, all 3 are homosexual....

Oh, this IS sad. Her performances were... celestial. Despite that, if you've seen her interviewed, she actually seems like a lovely woman who cared deeply about her community back home in Georgia and about access to arts education -- especially for disadvantaged communities.

R29 That performance was on FIRE!

Fucking spellbinding at r29 - that was incredible.

R28, Explanation for why so many fabulous women singers prefer the same sex?

No deepthroating required.

Goodnight, Jessye.

This is the most beautiful caftan I’ve ever seen.

This is the most beautiful caftan I’ve ever seen.

RIP Just Enormous.

At the Met, they used to call her Jessye Normous.

Lol [r9] a tent never sounded so good! I bet you wish you could pitch dat.

Yes she was a Big Bush Supporter and had a long time partner. Consummate professional. She had unconventional technique and fortunately the natural ability to pull it off until she lost the weight.

She was a true force of nature in every way. Rest In Power Jessye!

One of the last of the very great singers who was still alive. None of them are any longer perform. The end of a proud art form that lasted about 500 years.

Are there no great singers now?

There are plenty of great singers now. One problem is that they almost never get known beyond the opera world, and the proliferation of media outlets has reduced cross-over opportunities. From the 50s onward until around the millennium, opera singers appeared regularly on tv, as guests on chat-shows, the focus of programs as individuals, on arts shows of different types,and so on. People like Price, Caballe, Sutherland, Nilsson, Horne, the Big Three tenors etc were part of mainstream awareness in ways that Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko, an array of great baroque singers whose type barely existed in the 60s-70s, and so on just can't get today.

, Anyway, I was lucky enough to see Jessye just once, in Ariadne auf Naxos, with Edita Gruberova as Zerbinetta - an amazing performance from two awesome voices. I also think she was probably the last great, unironic wearer of turbans.

Good singers yes. But at the level of Norman? No absolutely not. The singers you talk about create no excitement and sell few tickets compared to the old days. That's why City opera folded and the Met has dark nights. You can watch the art form dying and say their are as great singers as there ever were and blame it on TV? You are delusional. Listen to Sutherland or Sills singing baroque and they would tear the roof off the place. Listen to Pinza sing Monteverdi or Callas sing Mozart or Baker sing Purcell. Nobody today can reach into the soul the way these people could.

[quote]I also think she was probably the last great, unironic wearer of turbans.

O tempora, o mores!

Having a different opinion on something unproveable doesn't make you delusional, R43. You act like the world of opera and the world of American, or even just New York opera are the same. Sutherland was an early proponent of the revival of Handel in the UK and its a shame she didn't do more; Baker began similarly (they performed together in, I think, Rodelinda) but ended up being more of a baroque specialist (at least as one thread of her career, along with others on Mozart, the British tradition and German Lieder). Sills' voice I didn't feel sounded right in the repertoire. TV was only one part of the development I was suggesting and I said the increasing separation of opera (and ballet and some other traditional performing forms) from the mainstream has become a general phenomenon in recent decades and this can't but lessen the glamor and fame of modern singers, however good they are. The changes in the recorded classical music industry are also a factor: Price, Sutherland, Nilsson recorded all their major roles, sometimes more than once in optimal studio conditions. Studio recordings pretty much never happen anymore

Also it is a pointless exercise to compare former singers to current ones; even the vinegar-queens of the Parreterre Box opera forum don't let posters do that.

Musical Perfection.

You rang?

You do know there were great singers before TV don't you? But back then there was an audience for it that doesn't exist today. As I pointed out even the audience has shrunk enormously. And it isn't because Ed Sullivan is no longer on TV. There isn't an audience large enough and there are no singers that excite an audience the way a great singer could. You would put Netrebko on the same level of a Callas or Tebaldi? You would put Kaufmann on the same level as a Corelli, Bergonzi or a Pavarotti? They're good singers but they hardly pack a house. And that's because they do not generate the excitement and anticipation that a great singer does. And if there is more of a separation you can't blame the media. People just don't care as they once did. Our culture is too different from what it was earlier in the 20th Century. So it's a combination of those factors.

Why can't you compare former stars to today's? We have their performances on record and people who heard them live. Sports fans do it all the time with athletes. We do it all the time on DL with pop singers. If you are not allowed to it just tells you how poorly current singers compare and nobody wants to admit it.

Norman was a great singer and was incomparable. But who today do you consider a force of nature as she or Pavarotti was? That's a real question not a rhetorical one.

[quote] There isn't an audience large enough and there are no singers that excite an audience the way a great singer could. You would put Netrebko on the same level of a Callas or Tebaldi? You would put Kaufmann on the same level as a Corelli, Bergonzi or a Pavarotti?

No, Mary, I would not!

*sobs* Pick on someone else! Leave me alone!

I'm sorry I've reduced you to a puddle of tears and to groveling. You don't need tissues you need a bath towel to sop up your distress.

Rene Flemming is in Jesse's league. And then some perhaps.

[quote] Rene Flemming is in Jesse's league.

Oh, [italic]dear,[italic] oh, [italic]dear,[/italic] and oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

R E N É E

F L E M I N G

J E S S Y E

She had an odd accent when speaking, like English was her second language. I wonder if she grew up with a typical Southern black accent and then tried to reinvent herself with something more genteel but just ended up sounding odd.

She not only was a great singer, but a great fashion inspiration! I'm going to try her French bicentennial look myself.

She spent quite a lot of time when young studying in Europe and also learned a number of languages. That can affect your speech. It happened to Callas as well despite her roots in Washington Heights. Though it's funny when in clips she gets angry. Then La Divina becomes just another squawking New Yawker.

How much money did she leave? Who gets it?

Renee Fleming is not in any remote way close to the league of Miss Jessye Norman.

She is talented, no doubt, but she is a generalist and does not scale to the heights of a virtuoso like Norman.

Renee Fleming is not in any remote way close to the league of Miss Jessye Norman.

She is talented, no doubt, but she is a generalist and does not scale to the heights of a virtuoso like Norman.

R45 I'm not sure what you mean when you say—

"The changes in the recorded classical music industry are also a facto . . . Studio recordings pretty much never happen anymore".

I know that I attend fewer concerts/operas nowadays to hear B-grade live performances when I can stay at home and play an A-grade recording.

I'm watching an interview she did with the BBC. It is a loss for our country and culture and if you can't see that, you're wrong.

Jessye sings Gussye:

Classical performing arts are no longer part of the public consciousness. When performers aren't being showcased regularly on tv, then general public doesn't get exposed to these art forms, opera, ballet, and symphony performances. As someone who straddles between Gen-X and oldest Millennials, I think we're both lucky enough to remember the last years of classical performing arts being featured in popular media. I was also lucky enough to be exposed to opera and ballet early in my childhood by my family, opera and classical music were constants in our home. When we had enough money for cheap tickets to performances, we'd go as a family.

Performers like Baryshnikov, Nureyev, and Pavarotti (I'm not a fan, think he's overrated) were names that circulated within pop culture and were household names. There's a real dumbing down of entertainment and people aren't exposed to the performing arts unless it's the occasional Christmas Nutcracker performance by the local ballet company. I'm only saddened by this decline when recently I was asked by a colleague to help put together a classical music playlist/ CD for her baby daughter. She told me the purpose was for the classical music to put her to sleep. I asked why only sleep because classical music is so much more than for calming purposes, to which she replied "I'm not going to play that boring shit all day long".

We're on our own now.

For you, r62.

Thank you R9 for posting that performance of Jessye at the French bicentennial. I heard that as an 11 year old. I was mesmerized by her performance. Both my parents are musicians, and I knew what good music was, even back then. If an 11 year old can be moved by that, it has to be something wonderful. Later on I got to hear her in recital, but I can't remember when that was. She was a grand dame at her voice filled that big awful hall. Before that, back sometime in the 90s, my parents "dragged" my brother an me to NYC and spent a shitload of money for all of us to attend a Metropolitan Opera Guild luncheon in honor of Leontyne Price. Jessye was the musical guest and sang a Strauss song with Levine at the piano. The program for that luncheon still exist somewhere in my parents home. My dad got Leontyne's autograph on that program.

Back in the thread I started, I posted that the singer in the movie Diva, was based on Jessye. My dad had it on laser disc and we would watch it occasionally. I'm sure it must be on dvd now. I remember reading an interview where she mentioned that the young man who was portrayed in the movie had died of aids.

As for comparisons to other singers, you guys are right. The likes of Fleming and Netrebko do not even come close to being equal to her or any other of the greats.

Sorry my brothers, I get long winded when it comes to music and opera.

^ I appreciate your sentiments, Ethan.

I forgot to include the trailer to Diva. It might interest some of you to watch it.

R64 That's even sadder as the article confirms that my colleague isn't alone in her misguidedness and lack of taste.

Main problem today is exposure, because most of the people that I take to operas and ballets end up enjoying them immensely. Almost all of them beg me to recommend more shows for them to go to with me or with their families. Youth and popular culture today also don't allow for enjoying varied forms of music, pop music sound very diluted and similar, that extends into style too but that's another thread. I remember being a freshman in high school, dressed mostly like an indie-punk rock with Dr. Martens of course to finish off the look. No one would guess from looking at me that my favorite music, more than other faves like Depeche Mode and The Cure, were opera and Ella Fitzgerald songs. And I wasn't just into opera performers from that time period , I was into older generations of performers too (Franco Corelli, Renata Tebaldi, Birgit Nilsson...), that was how much of an opera fan I was. What's more, when I told other kids about it, they mostly thought it was cool that I was into more than just music that we listened to. Now I think it's more like you're thought of as uncool if you're a teenager who's not into Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and plethora of rappers. This is from working with kids both in schools and as patients, kids today have more of a one-tracked mind, I've often wondered why that is.

This is it for me, the one that outclasses all the others.

R65 Mr. Mordden, is that you?

When I listen to Jessye Norman on a dark night singing —with all their infinite sadness— the Richard Strauss last songs my mind flickers back to scenes from decades ago like this—

This generation of singers is talented for sure but lacks the glamor and temperament of the great ladies of the past.

People used to line up at 6am for standing room tickets for performances. You weren't allowed earlier. Of course people did and got their name on a list kept by some crazy lady who was really a good organizer and then you would make yourself scarce so you weren't arrested.

I couldn't imagine people doing it for any singer today. It was exciting and exhausting and those standing room tickets for hot performances were gold.

Do any performances today even sell out?

I love you R49

The browbeaten nervous breakdown Marys! are always opera queens.

Jonathan Capehart's recent column about Jessye Norman describes their meeting in the company of Anna Deavere Smith at a performance of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Both Capehart and Smith are out, and Norman and Smith were linked at a number of public appearances. So.....?

Ms. Norman's funeral will be held October 12, in her hometown of Augusta, GA. She will lie in repose at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, on Thursday Oct 10. She made her public performance debut aged 12 at the church where her father was the Sunday School Superintendent. Her funeral on October 12, will be held at the city's 2,800 seat Bell Auditorium, which is part of the James Brown Entertainment Complex.

She was better at the fake accent thing than Madonna.

Here she is being interviewed by the BBC in 2014. I loved how she handled the interviewer with such confidence and charm. She was NOT going to be bullied by questions like "why would someone like you, an oppressed Black from Georgia, surrounded by gospel, jazz, and soul, end up singing opera?"

She made it clear that opera was what she was drawn to, and she saw no reason to not pursue it. She felt empowered by her talent, not oppressed by her race.

[quote]why would someone like you, an oppressed Black from Georgia, surrounded by gospel, jazz, and soul, end up singing opera?"

White Britons really are insulated, narrow-minded, arrogant dickheads no matter how much they travel

Oh, and condescending

From what I have read she seemed to have been a very genuine nice person. She was a girl scout and loved helping the scouts sell cookies. Given all of her travels and accolades that's just wonderful to know that she had such pleasure working with the scouts.

Damn, the performance of the "Marseillaise" in that clip at R9 is a mess. Because of the staging, Norman is sometimes completely out of synch with the chorus and orchestra.

And though her singing of the Liebestod at R29 is phenomenal, the clip is ruined by the fact that the vocal is lip synched. Don't you think?

[quote] Here she is being interviewed by the BBC

BBC? I'm so jealous...

Some queen linked a wonderful interview from BBC in connection to a thread here about accents and the mid-Atlantic accent in particular. Jessye was a true goddess

I do wonder if she always spoke like that or if it was just code switching. I had a black female professor who spoke like that in class. But, one Saturday I was doing a voter registration drive at a football game and I walked up to she and her husband's tailgate. Let's just say she was feeling good and talking completely different. I'm still not sure which style of speaking was the put on.

Jessye Norman's accent was rather a melange, but it always sounded mostly British to me. I guess you could call it pretentious in the sense that I'm sure she didn't grow up speaking that way, but I always found her speech very pleasing,

I tell ya... I don't know how Lizzie stands it at times...

But, yes, yes, yes! GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

The liebstod is hurt by her lip syncing. How truly glorious it would have been visually and vocally if you knew she had been singing at the moment of filming.

Many black celebrities take on that accent--Tina Turner is another

She never seems to talk about Leontyne Price as an inspiration. At least I have never come across it in my looking at her interviews. She only mentions and talks about Marian Anderson.

Anybody know if she talks about her in her book?

R92, interesting observation. True- nearly every black opera singer since names Price as an inspiration but I've never heard Norman mention Price.

She mentions Miss Price here, starting at around 0:17.

And now another diva gone: Diahann Carroll

There you go. Thank you.

Death always comes in threes, you know!

Fuck off, r97!

[quote] She mentions Miss Price here, starting at around 0:17.

What a bitch! It takes her a whole 17 seconds to mention Price!

R99 Hi Kathleen Battle!

For some reason, I assumed Miss Jessye was older than 74. Leontyne is 18yrs older but I would have put them closer in age. I loved both their voices and saw both many times. I do agree that Jessye only mentioned Marion Anderson.

[quote] I do agree that Jessye only mentioned Marion Anderson.

So, was there any type of conflict between the two?

[quote]I remember reading an interview where she mentioned that the young man who was portrayed in the movie had died of aids.

That's certainly not true.

[quote] She had an odd accent when speaking, like English was her second language. I wonder if she grew up with a typical Southern black accent and then tried to reinvent herself with something more genteel but just ended up sounding odd.

[quote] Many black celebrities take on that accent--Tina Turner is another

Why would the speech patterns of someone who left their hometown as a young teen, to travel and live all over the world, not reflect that. Norman left Augusta at age 16. By age 33 she had lived more of her life away from home, than she had lived at hone in Georgia. She lived abroad and in multiple cities in the US. She learned multiple languages. Why would she sound the same as she did at age 15 or ten. Does anyone who spends most of their life far away from wherever they were born, still sound the same. People move around the US and drop and gain new accents all of the time. Yet it’s somehow strange and curious when those people are not white. Black peoples are looked down on when they use black dialects. They are looked down on in a way that no other group is. Yet many other groups also have their own dialect. Black dialectical English grew out of slavery. Essentially most black people speak at least 2 languages, Standard English and a black dialect. Norman’s mother was a school teacher, so unlike many Americans, she probably always spoke Standard English well. She also obviously had a gift for languages.

However, the real question here is why whites feel the need to continuously dig at the way black people speak. There is already the immediate built in assumption that black people are inferior. Using a black dialect only heightens that assumption. Because of the underlining assumption black people who speak Standard English well are equally chastised. There is this apparent need to put successful black people in what is perceived as their place. So we have to repeatedly have this conversation about Jessye Norman’s speech. It’s so tiresome,

R104, I'm one one of the people who mentioned her accent (R78) and it certainly had nothing to do with her color. I just always find it funny when Americans take on this pseudo-British accent. Madonna was ridiculed for it.

It can go the other way. Guys like Justin Timberlake or Marky Mark doing that "urban" accent, then the moment they get in a courtroom, they're suddenly "white" guys again.

I think Fleming is in the same league but very different fach and of course less unusual voice. Jessye was able to accomplish some things technique wise that most mortals cannot do (innthe end it got the best of her too but not after a long career). Fleming has plenty of competition- she wasn't spinto enough to be a Leontyne however in French repertoire I think she is/was perfection voice, timbre and diction. I'm very glad we have had the pleasure of living in a era where both were present.

I think Fleming truly is one of the last great divas. There are several lesser known with comparable voices like Marquita Lister or Angela Rene Simpson etc but that generation is sadly aging out too. There are some thrilling young tenors however the dramatic sopranos mostly sound dark and flat and cancel all the time. Kaufman is sexy sexy and a great actor but his vocal production is a bit dark and I don't think he'll last much longer because of that.

Dear R106, I don't understand 'spinto' and 'different fach'.

A unique voice

Yes a number of white people have been called out on their airs and accent affectations many times so exactly what are you talking about that you find so tiresome R104?

she had it all

Fach is basically repertoire category. People cannl move in and out of different fachs. For example dramatic coloraturas often make good Toscas in their later years but not great Aidas. Spinto means "pushed" although what it means is that the soprano has combinations of Lyric and Dramatic qualities. A spinto usually has a lyric middle and a powerful top that can also be sung with ease. Perfect examples of spinto singers: Leontyne Price, Corelli, Pavarotti when he got a little older (40s plus) Domingo, Tebaldi, Gencer, etc. Spinto roles include tenor and soprano roles in Aida, Don Carlos, La Forza del Destino Andrea Chenier, and often Tosca and Werther. To be honest Norman was a hybrid soprano/mezzo. Often times mezzos with great high notes move up but it's not advisable snd they rarely sing as well. Jessye was what I would call a Wagnerian Lyric-Dramatic soprano- very close to a Spinto but with a voice that's centered a couple of notes lower. She had an unusually powerful full midle range and and often huge top but she wasn't quite as comfortable at the top as a Brunhilde or Electra. Her voice was more suited for Sieglinde or Elisabeth from Tannhauser. This is why she was so fantastic in 20th century repertoire which requires great musicianship and interesting leaps and extreme sounds. She made those roles sound powerful but less harsh than a more penetrating higher voiced dramatic soprano.

[quote] Jessye was what I would call a Wagnerian Lyric-Dramatic soprano-

This is not a real thing.

She was a lyric soprano that was pushed into heavier jugendlische roles because she had a bit of depth to her sound. She never used chest, which was unacceptable, and struggled to be heard in dramatic repertoire on a stage, especially at the Met. Her most famous role was Ariadne which is accompanied by a chamber orchestra, and she struggled to make an impact in that.

She recorded well, I’ll give her that, but beyond that... eh.

Lots of white opera singers have had similar career trajectories as Norman yet not one that I know of talks like her.

So R104, there goes your theory

Norman wasn’t so great in the soprano repertoire. I have live recording or her singing Aida and it’s undistinguished. She could do Wagner because those don’t require strong high Cs.

She was far more comfortable in the lower registers

She was comfortable in the lower registers because she had a large diaphragm.

I wonder if she would qualify as a Falcon— a singer with a lower voice that can be pushed high

I don't know, R112, I heard Jessye live in Die Walküre, and I don't recall having any trouble hearing her voice over the orchestra.

Ariadne is orchestrated to have the sound of a chamber orchestra but most definitely is not much like Capriccio. The music soars as Strauss pulls out his lush full orchestral sound in the musical climaxes above which both the soprano and tenor must soar.

^Speak English, R118.

Everything by Strauss would be improved by cutting off an hour

R119 you might want to learn English.

R120 I wouldn't say everything but definitely Der Rosenkavalier goes to the top of the list.

These a lot of navel-gazing in Strauss operas

Let's go to the video tape!

Another

D'amour l'ardente flamme

Strauss operas after Elektra are a bit meh. Melody lines are just so convoluted and the settings are uninspiring.

Gorgeous singing at those links!

Did she ever explain how she got that scar under her left eye?

I saw that gospel performace live. The two divas did not seem to like each other.

I heard stories about the two of them form the recording production team when they came out, no, Norman merely tolerated her colleague

I loved the concert in which Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle performed Negro spirituals. "Scandalize My Name" is my favorite, and I think they enjoyed singing it, too.

^ I admire the work of the pianist in doing the timing to accomodate audience reaction.

R118 Are you saying 'Ariadne' uses a small orchestra but sounds like a big orchestra.

He’s saying bull crap

So, he's losing his fear of impeachment...

I think too many people are simply relying upon the Clinton impeachment and what happened there. Yep! Clinton lied under oath and that is serious--very serious. But, it was about a blow job! C'mon now with that... Anyway, most Americans knew that the Clinton incident was political. I think everyone needs to be concentrating more upon the Nixon near impeachment and the Andrew Johnson impeachment. Johnson was basically re-empowering the south after a brutal war. We all know the Nixon story.

The evidence that is coming out now is showing Trump to be almost traitorous to this nation. He's not fully there yet in my opinion. But, he ain't far from it. Below is a good report by "60 Minutes"

R133 When I saw Britten's 'Rape of Lucrezia' I saw a small orchestra but I heard what sounded like a big orchestra.

OOPS! My apologies everyone! I posted on the wrong thread!

RIP, Miss Norman!

I could never stand that buffoon

So, does anyone know the story behind Miss Norman's spinal chord injury? I can't find anything on it. But, I have seen a number of YT videos that show her in a motorized wheel chair.

Now, tenor Marcello Giordani is dead. Had a heart attack.

Singing opera puts too much strain on the mind and body. That's why they all go mad and then drop dead.

Right, R141. That's why Leontyne Price is still with us at 92.

How many times did Leontyne sing Lucia?

Not enough

Lucia who?

di lamamoor

This is interesting. This was an award and interview that she had done last year. She was living in an apartment? By this time she had sold her house on the Hudson and had auctioned many of her belongings off. I read somewhere that she left an estate of about $3MM. What happened to her and her money?

She auctioned off everything.

R143, probably never. Did she ever sing a note of Donizetti?

Secret binges on wings and muff. That’s no way to live.

She sang all the notes

I am still very curious when she injured her back? And r141... your post actually made me guffaw! I work in classical music and losing Jessye has been so sad and touched me more than I could have imagined

Very sad to hear of Jessye's passing.

Clips seem to show she was in a motorized wheelchair in at least this last year.

To die of sepsis indicates massive infection.

Her Strauss 4 Last songs are truly sublime.

Lots of sopranos aren’t the type for Donizetti.

Her type isn’t right for bel canto

It’s beautiful

I saw her 4 times at the Met. I was a fool for not going to hear her more often.

Few opera stars rake in huge sums; even at superstar status. Actors like Jim Parsons or Tom Cruise bring in far more from a season on a hit television show or one film.

Late Dmitri Hvorostovsky, revealed in divorce proceedings his annual UK income was about £2 million with much of that sum coming from concerts, not performances say at MET, La Scala, etc...

That is the key, if you are a hot opera property you make your money in recordings and concerts, hence all those "Three Tenor" events, and recordings.

Luciano Pavarotti left an estate valued between $250-$300 million. But that included assets like real estate in NYC (three apartments), and several villas/homes scattered in Italy and Monte Carlo.

Getting back to Jessye Norman, by sometime in the 1990's she began having vocal difficulties. The instrument was still there, but wasn't what it once was; this may have affected roles and amount of work undertaken. Being a jobbing opera singer isn't easy on young singers, but for a woman of Ms. Norman's age (and well weight), flying around the world doing concerts and performances probably was getting tiring.

A friend of mine was a huge fan of hers and always went to see her in her performances and after. He started hearing her having vocal problems at a certain point and mentioned it to her trying to be helpful. I don't think that's a good idea if you cherish a relationship you have with a singer even an acquaintanceship. She cut him off at that point.

r158 She was well aware of her vocal issues and did not need a fan to bring them to her attention

Yes I agree. He should have kept quiet.

Were her vocal difficulties due to improper vocal techniques, or old age?

They were due to baked ziti.

I’ve a met a few singers backstage after performance, and there’s usually some wacko fan back there demanding that he/she stop singing a role because it’s not right for the type of voice.

WTF? The singer just finished a grueling show. STFU

Thanks, R157. I had no idea that opera stars made so little. But, it does make sense. It seems as Miss Norman had to sell as much as could for health and medical expenses. It sure was like a fire sale.

John Ardoin who has written some excellent books on music including The Callas Legacy a very interesting guide to all her recordings not only commercial but everything known to exist became very goods friends with her. Their breakup came when he reviewed her with DiStefano in their concert tour in the early 70s. Why he decided to do this I have no idea. He could have had another critic review her. He had to have known it would cost him her friendship.

[R162] Linked article pretty much sums things up nicely.

Ms. Norman had a huge shimmering and powerful voice, often described as a "mansion of sound", but as any singer will tell you the voice is what it is. Sometimes even with the best training, talent and care problems just happen, we're talking about a part of human body after all.

Reaching upper register of soprano fach wasn't always easy for Ms. Norman, and not long into her "prime" it became more difficult. By late 1980's and certainly into 1990's she dropped down a fach into mezzo-soprano which suited what her instrument had become. This is not entirely bad nor unheard of; plenty of sopranos such as Regina Resnik ended up their careers as mezzo-sopranos. The voice darkens with age, and or maybe even wasn't a true soprano to begin with, so dropping down isn't such a bad thing.

Some opera singers do ruin their voices either by poor technique/training and or taking on roles the instrument cannot handle, especially if done too early in their careers. Peter Hofmann is one of a pretty long line of opera performers who chewed up and ruined their voices by doing too much far too soon.

What can and often does affect opera singers (females in particular) is weight; gain or loss. Maria Callas 's instrument went through changes when she dropped weight.

Fach rhymes with Bach.

It didn't help Callas that when she met Ari her life became an emotional rollercoaster which I think hurt her as much as anything. She no longer had the confidence to sustain what she had worked so hard to achieve. She was cut off from her family and her first husband. She had no one. When she cut herself off from Meneghini she cut herself off permanently from the only stability she would have in her life. She realized it and was adrift grasping at anything.

More on what opera singers make using chorus of MET opera as an example.

Chorus singers are union with all that comes with such representation (healthcare, maternity leave/payments, etc....). Their compensation is based upon negotiated union contracts.

OTOH soloists/guest stars must negotiate their own contacts individually. There is always the chance no matter how popular, a diva or whatever an opera singer is the MET, La Scala or whoever will not pay more than a certain amount, period.

Dirt from the industry.

I used to wonder what fee Pavarotti was getting at the Met. Was he really only getting what the other top singers were getting or were there some sort of sweetheart deals going on? Are there private donors who will subsidize individual performers without word getting out?

Would have to research and get back to you, but am more than usually sure Mr. Pavarotti got whatever he wanted.

From his debut in 1970 until retirement from MET stage Mr. Pavarotti as part of cast was sure to sell out an opera, often with most seats gone by subscription or VIPs with advance access to tickets. What was left sold out quickly at box office soon as they went on sale.

Any singer who could reliably fill that barn of a house known as the MET was worth his or her weight in gold.

Of course we had voices then; and casting along side Pavarotti included such greats as Joan Sutherland, Mirella Freni, Shirley Verrett,

Those 3 women were among the greatest of their time but no matter how wonderful they were it's difficult to believe he was getting what they were getting. Yet I'm sure they were getting the Met's highest fee.

Mr. Pavarotti was "it" far as MET and other opera houses, concert tours and so forth were concerned by the 1980's through 1990's. It could be argued via his concerts and other performances new life was given to opera which had by then begun to see waning audiences.

Am not discounting the sopranos, mezzos, and baritones, but people were paying $2k a seat to see/hear Pavarotti; that had to give him some pull. Though there were stunts , which at some point tried even Mr. Volpe.

I saw Jessye Norman perform over 30 times here in New York. Jessye was a remarkable artist and her recitals were real events. I adored her. I also am quite frankly stunned at the lack of respect she received from The New York Times and other publications.

I was certain her obituary would begin on Page 1, but her death was postage-sized reference at the bottom of the first page. The threadbare obituary was smaller than I thought, and the remembrance posted a few days later raised her imperiousness right in the title. The treatment was much the same in the London papers and the Wall Street Journal. Other than Renee Fleming and a few African-American Sopranos, many of today's opera stars did not even post a picture of her on Twitter or Instagram...this became even more apparent when Marcello Giordani died a few days later. He was remembered by many colleagues. It makes me think this story is true: American opera star Martina Arroyo, also talented, also black, heard Jeasye being quite imperious at a party somewhere and turned to her and said "Would you like some chitlins with that?"

I loved "Jessye's Carol" written for her by John Williams. It is on her Christmastide CD. I LOVED He's Got The Whole World. I loved her Carmen songs. Even though Poulens wrote the Les Chemins de L'Amour under the Nazi regime, Jessye Norman's performance of it remains an exquisite jewel I will play until the day I die.

Ironically Phillips made a fortune on her but then seemed to lose all interest, plenty of artists in recent years saw releases major retrospective CDs and box sets, but not Jessye.

Still, the music survives.

How lucky and smart you were!

Her Carmen was riveting

[quote] Ironically Phillips made a fortune on her but then seemed to lose all interest, plenty of artists in recent years saw releases major retrospective CDs and box sets, but not Jessye.

Now that she's dead, I'm sure Phillips will put out all the boxes to capitalize

Jessye singing at age 23.

She was amazing even so young!

Philips no longer exists. It will probably be Decca. Though they should have done it years ago.

Years ago, records companies were ignoring Leontyne Price as well. After she retired, no compilations were released. Even CD versions of her albums weren't being created.

Then, suddenly, there was a boom of digitized versions of her output, exposing her glorious voice to newer generations.

Hopefully, we can have the same with Norman.

I believe that Price had always been well represented in terms of her complete operas it was her recital albums that were iffy. There was an opera recital box and a separate song recital box. Those alas are again hard to come by. If you can find them at a decent used price they are must haves. Even if you are just getting into opera they are glorious. They really need to be rereleased.

Here's a great CD box set of some Price's RCA complete operas for $70

^ sorry, now Sony Classical

Why are many of you ignoring that fact that the opera art form and its stars are just simply not that popular and well known among the mainstream? In my opinion, if you opera queens wanted to do something effective and worthwhile to really help support that art than help in exposing more young people to opera.

Speaking only for myself, I've always known about opera and I have seen performances on PBS but I did not really start really paying attention to the art form until watching Pavorotti perform Nessun Dorma via some movie and on television. But, even then I did not see my first actual live performance of an opera until I was in my 50's and it was then that I became hooked! I've only seen three live performances; "The Magic Flute", "Turandot", and "Aida" but I've come to LOVE the art form and I'm just now learning about the various performers. Now, I buy the CD's, and watch YouTube, etc. Imagine how much more money the MET would have gotten from me if I saw a live performance when I was in my 20's?

The only thing that really knew about Miss Norman's career and performances was from what I read in the papers and that she sang "Ave Maria" for Jackie O's funeral. But now, I REALLY appreciate her talent.

When I was in high school, I forced myself to like opera by watching it on PBS. I figured that people must like it for some reason so I tried to acquire it--and I did.

After moving to NYC in my 20's, I went all the time--sometimes even 2-3 times per week. Now, I'm in my late 40's and don't like most of the opera stars and the same repertoire nowadays. I've reduced it to once or twice a year

R180, my alma Mater, I had no idea.

Since Pavarotti died and Battle and Norman stopped singing opera and there are no more great singers to excite the public it has dropped even further in popularity. City Opera closed which was a terrible blow as it featured younger singers and lesser known works and operettas along with the warhorses. The Met now has an abbreviated season and has been forced to do Sunday matinees which it never did in its history. There would be the occasional Sunday Gala. The houses are rarely full let alone sold out and they stopped the tour many years ago which brought the greatest singers in full productions across the country. Younger multi millionaires and corporations are not supporting it, they simply don't care about it, and the operatic voice has become more alien to younger audiences. I really don't see it coming back. It takes time and attention and very few people have that any more.

Also anybody who would contribute to the Met would be very ill-advised to do so. So much of their money for decades has had to go to pay off furtive sexual abuse settlements. Which everybody in the classical musical field knew about since the 70s.

The MET prices are nuts and they showcase the same stars over and over and over. Plus the repertoire is stale.

I also find the theatre so huge that it's hard to enjoy most opera, particularly comedies.

Opera is doing little to attract young audiences. It's a dying quickly.

Thank you, R190. The Met opera house would make anyone hate opera. It's a hideous place in which to be an audience member.

Not elsewhere

But when it had great singers it would fill and you were lucky to have a ticket. It's the same size as the old Met and if people had a problem with the size it never kept them from buying tickets. People might say it's too big but it was not a problem when people were clamoring to get tickets. Now nothing there has people clamoring to get in. Even American Ballet Theater when it featured certain dancers had people desperate for tickets. You were out front asking people if they had an extra ticket as if you were a beggar outside of Port Authority.

[quote]Even American Ballet Theater

And, once again, (in my opinion), this all comes down to exposure and repeated exposure. You know... we REALLY did a disservice to ourselves and future generations by cutting art programs (and not fighting hard enough for these programs), in our public schools. How do we get back to a respect for the creative arts? I have no solution except that if you have young children in your family it would be a start to exposing them to dance, the opera, museums,etc.

We have everything we need for a good weekend

If opera is going to survive in NYC, then the MET has to go. That barn of a place was built for and in a different time for all the performing arts.

For one you still had large audiences of not just wealthy, but the middle and even working classes to fill all those seats. Regardless if they arrived by subway somewhere in city, or came in by car from the suburbs. Well those audiences are dying out (literally), and there isn't a huge demographic coming online to replace.

Second a smaller and more intimate house would allow singers who now avoid the MET due to its size (and fears of what trying to fill it with sound will do to their voices), to perform in NYC. It would also allow performances of smaller less known operas that MET tends to avoid out of fears won't be able to sell tickets. How many times can people see La Boheme, Carmen, Aida, Rigoletto, Turandot, Madame Butterfuly, and of course the ever present various Wagner operas?

Whatever bragging rights to being world's largest opera house (MET has 3,800 seats) long has ceased relevance. Opera Bastille in Paris has only 2,700 seats, and they are in heavy demand with constant sell out performances. In comparison Opéra Garnier has only 1,979 seats, but again manages to get them filled far more consistently than the MET.

Of course in Europe various state and local governments provide often decent to deep funding for the arts directly or indirectly. Here in New York as with rest of USA places largely have to go it alone. Well not unless they can nab a "David Geffen" willing to pony up millions in exchange to having their name plastered about the place.

One of the most anticipated events of la rentrée in Paris, and most sought after ticket is opening night at Palais Garnier, and the “Défilé du Ballet,” There is nothing to equal it anywhere else, which is as it should befitting founding of ballet in ancien regime France.

Those operas are known so they attract people. You might be sick of them but there still a vast audience who has never seen them yet knows their names. Who wants to tell their friends they saw Powder Her Nose last night? Again you need great singers like Pavarotti and Freni in Boheme and they would pack the huge Met but they no longer exist. City Opera was the smaller house and company with an interesting rep but nobody went so how do you justify that and even Koch or Geffen or anybody like them wouldn't support them. I mean there are a number of fabulous billionaires in the US today and none are willing to support it and it wouldn't cost them the sweat off their noses. There has been too much of a cultural shift in the US for this to make sense. Grown adults are more into comic book movies and paying obscene mounts of money for basketball and football games. That's where all the money and attention goes. When you have adults going to movies like The Force Awakens instead of packing into Dr Zhivago or Lion in Winter and it makes billions of dollars you are in a very different world.

I can't have all of it now

Oh, I wish I had enough money to sponsor a class of fourth graders to see Turandot or even Aida (with the live horses) It would have such a lasting impact upon their lives.

The Met used to have young student class trips to special matinees. I wonder if they still do it. Though I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to sing opera for NY schoolchildren. They very first performance at the new house was a student matinee of Fanciulla Del West to get a sense of the house before the premiere perf of A&C.

When I was in college, we would sometimes get free tix to dress rehearsals at the Met, through the music department at our school. That was how I heard Pavarotti for the first time, in I PURITANI with Sutherland. I remember they would rarely stop at the dress rehearsals, but one time they did, in MADAMA BUTTERFLY -- I think there was a problem with the coordination of the offstage singing in the Butterfly entrance, so they re-did that.

I don't know what the current Met policy is as far as dress rehearsal tickets.

R190 The repertoire is stale is because we there's been only a few satisfying operas written in the last 100 years.

Audiences have shorter attention-spans and different ways to be entertained.

Few teachers and assistant principals at my high school used to give those dress rehearsal tickets (opera or ballet) to certain students. They came with a pass that let them out of classes so could go attend without cutting school.

Those tickets were usually always passed out to major donors, subscribers and also via MET Opera Guild.

MET has various outreach programs aimed at "younger" audiences.

One are the "Friday under Forty" events. Then you have the "Young Associates" program for those 21-45.

You can still get student discounted tickets on day of performance as well.

"Student Discount Tickets for full time students are available at 10 am on the day of the performance (pending availability), and may be purchased at the Metropolitan Opera's box office. Prices are $25 for weekday performances and $35 for Friday and Saturday performances. A valid student ID and proof of age must be presented at the time of purchase. We are aware that some elementary schools do not provide a student ID. Exceptions will be made when the student is present at the time of purchase. Limit two tickets per performance. Call Met Ticket Service at 212.362.6000 for current Student Discount Ticket availability."

Well, do the schools know about these programs, R205? Or, are they just internet dependent? Of course I don't know but I would hope that the Met has a liaison with the schools who would proactively work with them and recruit students to come and learn about opera. I think a problem might be that most of the teachers and administration may not have not ever had an opera experience.

Yes, MET has a whole department or whatever devoted to education which includes community outreach to schools both public and private.

So does the MET Opera Guild

Student discount tickets shouldn't be pending availability. This is terrible. A certain number should be put aside for every performance. This should be underwritten by a sponsor. Incredible that in a city where billionaire condo skyscrapers are sprouting like weeds the city does not demand that these people support in a very generous way its arts. These people are fabulously wealthy and the city is wasting precious resources on them -literally light!-and is asking nothing from them except profits for politicians and real estate developers.

I love a fat lady

[R209]

You answered your own question; find a donor with a big purse to pony up for that ticket subsidy and am sure MET, ABT, and other places would be happy to comply. Unless or until that happens they all have bills to pay, which by the way keep going up while revenue is dwindling.

Truth to tell these institutions are all private, some may be not for profit, but never the less neither local or federal government is footing entire bill.

Great artist to be sure, just wish I could warm to her. Over the top for me. Can never quite relax in her expansiveness. Condolences to her many, many fans though.

I only saw her once, in recital at Carnegie Hall, but her artistry was unparalleled for me at the time. Such beautiful singing. My roommate thought she was too precious. In art song, I thought she was just right. I never saw her at the Met. I had many free tickets to the MET during my school days but her performances were never among them.

If anyone wants to watch WRDW-TV her hometown CBS affiliate is livestreaming her funeral.

Yea this IS a real thing. It's an actual fach: roughly translated as "youthful dramatic" Nilsson and Flagstad were what Germans called hoch or "high dramatic" sopranos. Those voices actually lie HIGHER as well but because of their size carry tremendous ring and bite throughout their range. They typically need to possess solid high Ds even higher to have the stamina for a Brunhilde or Isolde. A male example of a Jessye - like voice is Bryn Terfel. He's a lyric-dramatic baritone and can easily sing above the orchestra but his voice sat between true bass baritone and true high or Verdi baritone. So he could sing Wolfram in Tannhauser perfectly however I think Wotan was a bad choice. Scarpia MAYBE Salome/John the Baptist was OK but not heavy Verdi or the heaviest Wagner. Jessye similarly sat between some mezzo roles and some dramatic soprano roles however the color and ring was definitely soprano.

Not to get to much into technique however Jessye would sometimes open frontal space more than advisable except because she was a goddess she was able to navigate that pretty well (until she lost the weight and started having pitch problems but by then she was in her 60s so it's all good.) i have a GLORIOUS 1971 recoding of a recital and her vocal production was in some ways technically more "ideal" and the top was still dramatic without being unforced. However she was NOT a manufacturered dramatic soprano - she was a low dramatic soprano with more lyrical qualities perfect for Elsa but not Brunhilde/Elektra.

Where's the recital from and what label? I don't think she's going to object at this point.

Did any of you opera-queens see this?

I spoke to a friend who raved about it but I suspect he was rather biased.

He described it having 'a great fugue' but I'm not sure what that means.

I'm still here!

RIP

Still sad about this one.

Her entire funeral is now uploaded on YouTube (5 parts) and I'll just upload the first part here.

OOPS! EIGHT (8) parts. After all, she was a diva!

Thank you for uploading it!!!

I cannot believe she is gone as well. I still maintain her death - her life - was not given the proper respect.

You're welcome, R233

How nice! Her community gave her a beautiful send off

FYI:

Metropolitan Opera to Hold Public Memorial for Late Jessye Norman

The Metropolitan Opera will commemorate the legacy of Jessye Norman with a free, public memorial, to be held November 24 at the New York City venue.