Jessye Norman

Jessye Norman ( born September 15, 1945 in Augusta, Georgia, USA) is a world famous soprano who has one of the outstanding voices of the 20th century. In their large and diverse repertoire, among other operas and songs of romance are a focus, but it is has also appeared as an interpreter of spirituals and jazz.

Life

Jessye Norman is the daughter of a teacher and an insurance agent, both parents were active in the American civil rights movement of the time and amateur musician, his mother a pianist, his father a singer in a church choir. Already in her childhood Jessye loved to sing and often. A formative experience was after testifying a radio feature with Marian Anderson and Rosa Ponselle, of which she was deeply impressed.

She received a scholarship to Howard University, where she studied music and graduated in 1967 with a bachelor's degree. She also took singing lessons with Alice Duschak in Baltimore and Pierre Bernac in Michigan. In 1968 she won first prize at the International Music Competition of the ARD in Munich, which she in the role of Elisabeth in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser made ​​his debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1969. In the second break of Tannhäuser, she was offered a four year commitment, and they took by surprise. There, she also sang the role of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro among others.

In the following years, she performed with various German and Italian opera companies, in 1972 she appeared under the baton of Claudio Abbado in the role of Aida in Verdi 's opera for the first time at La Scala. That same year she sang for the first time in Les Troyens by Cassandra Hector Berlioz at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. First appearances in the U.S. they had from 1972 in Los Angeles, and in 1973 at Lincoln Center. In the three following years she developed a diverse concert and opera activities, which led among other things to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where she took part in performances of Giacomo Meyerbeer The African and Georg Friedrich Handel's Deborah. Around this time, Norman began increasingly to deal with the song repertoire, as proved to be particularly suitable for her voice. Until 1980, she sang no more operas, but focused exclusively on the world of songs, in which they developed a remarkable repertoire. Her specialties included Wagner's Wesendonck -Lieder, the Gurrelieder of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg's Altenberg Lieder. They also dealt extensively with the French composer Henri Duparc as, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Fauré and the songs of the Russians Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky.

In 1981 she gave repeated recitals at the Salzburg Festival, where she was in 1987 to hear even under Herbert von Karajan with Isolde's death. In 1982, she returned with the part of Dido in Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas (Philadelphia ) also returns to the opera stages. In 1983, she joined then for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera on, there she sang again the Cassandra in Les Troyens in the anniversary production for the 100th season of the house. In 1985 she sang the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Vienna State Opera.

In the eighties and nineties she has been heard at many major concert halls, including at the Lyric Opera in Chicago ( debut in 1990 with Christoph Willibald Gluck's Alceste ), La Scala, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Opera House in London. Norman performed at festivals in Verbier, Saito Kinen, Aix -en- Provence and Salzburg, opened the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and sang the Marseillaise on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. Since the nineties, they also began to work in the field of jazz and developed programs with music by Michel Legrand or Duke Ellington. Due to health problems, it has significantly reduced the number of appearances since about 2003.

Awards

• 5 Grammys: Jessye Norman was five times awarded a Grammy in 1986 for their recording of songs by Maurice Ravel ( " Best Classical Vocal Soloist performance" ), in 1988 as a soloist with the award-winning Lohengrin interpretation of Sir Georg Solti, 1989 under James Levine the Valkyrie, 1998, together with Pierre Boulez for the recording of Béla Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and 2006 she won the Grammy for lifetime achievement.
• Grand Prix National du Disque
• United States Kennedy Center Honor in 1997. For her art and her humanitarian work.
• Honorary Member of the Vienna Konzerthaus
• Radcliffe Medal, 1997
• Commandeur de l' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 1984
• Ordre de la Légion d' honneur, 1989
• Special Envoy of the United Nations, 1990
• Bremer Musikfest Prize, 2001
• Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st Class, 2008
• National Medal of Arts, 2009

Discography (selection)

Solo recordings

• With a Song in My Heart ( 1984)
• Christmastide (1990 )
• Amazing Grace (1991 )
• Classics ( 1992)
• Lucky to Be Me (1992 )
• In the Spirit (1996 )
• Jessye Norman (1999)
• I Was Born in Love With You (2000)
• Jessye Norman Sings Michel Legrand

Other

There are a number of recordings with Jessye Norman in a variety of roles and ensembles, a relatively complete list can be found on the fan page shown below links.