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Remembering Jessye Norman (1945-2019)
Remembering Jessye Norman (1945-2019)
The American soprano thrilled audiences with her interpretations of Wagner and Strauss heroines.
The American soprano thrilled audiences with her interpretations of Wagner and Strauss heroines.
The Royal Opera is saddened to hear of the death of the American soprano Jessye Norman, who passed away on 30 September at the age of 74.
Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia, learnt piano from an early age and discovered opera through listening to radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, New York. She studied at Howard University in Washington DC, at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
After graduation, she moved to Germany, where in 1969 she won the ARD International Music Competition. In the same year she became a member of Deutsche Oper Berlin, making her debut with this company as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser to ecstatic reviews. She went on to sing for companies including the Metropolitan Opera, New York (where she gave more than eighty performances), La Scala, Milan, Hamburg State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Philadelphia and The Royal Opera.
Her wide, effortless vocal range and rich timbre enabled her to take on both soprano and mezzo-soprano roles, while her impressive height and regal bearing made her an ideal performer of noble heroines such as Alceste, Leonore (Fidelio), Cassandra (Les Troyens), Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Kundry (Parsifal) and Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), which was probably her greatest role. Her other repertory included the title roles of Aida, Carmen and Salome, Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) and Judith (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle). Norman made her debut with The Royal Opera in September 1972 as Cassandra, returning in 1973 as Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) and in 1985 as Ariadne, a performance that Rodney Milnes in The Spectator hailed as ‘voluptuous of tone’. She also appeared as a soloist in the 1986 Royal Opera House Gala.
Along with her opera performances, Norman enjoyed an illustrious concert and recital career, in a vast repertory including concert works by Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Chausson, Schoenberg and Ravel, Lieder, French song and American repertory including spirituals and jazz. In 2000 she gave the world premiere, at Carnegie Hall, of Judith Weir’s song cycle woman.life.song, which was written for her. She recorded prolifically, and after retiring from the operatic stage was very active in charity work. In 2003 she opened the Jessye Norman School of the Arts in partnership with the Rachel Longstreet Foundation: a tuition-free performing arts after-school programme for economically disadvantaged students in her home town of Augusta, Georgia. Her multiple awards included most recently the 2018 Glenn Gould Prize and the 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. In 2014 she published the memoir Stand Up Straight and Sing!
Director of Opera Oliver Mears said:
‘We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jessye Norman, who performed several important roles with the Royal Opera including Cassandra in Les Troyens, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos and Elisabeth in Tannhauser. Her extraordinary charisma and talent, her gift to communicate, and her generosity to the younger generation of singers and audience will be much missed.’
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation, a charitable company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales (Company number 480523) Charity Registered (Number 211775)