The Very Best of Jessye Norman
This is a collection of amazing performances by one of our country’s greatest singers. the richness of Ms. Norman’s voice is legendary, and her interpretations are sensitive and totally musical.
Selections are as follows:
Berlioz:
- Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17: Premiers transports que nul n’oublie
Brahms:
- Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45)
Offenbach:
- Les Contes d’Hoffmann (highlights)
- Amours divins (from La Belle Helène)
- On me nomme Hélène la blonde … dis-moi Vénus
- Là vrai, je ne suis pas coupable (from La Belle Hélène)
- Elle vient, c’est elle (from La Belle Hélène)
Poulenc:
- Miroirs brûlants
- La Fraîcheur et le feu
Ravel:
- Trois chansons madécasses
- Chanson du rouet
- Si morne!
Schubert:
- Dem Unendlichen, D291 (Klopstock)
- Der Winterabend (Es ist so still), D938
- Auflösung, D807
Wagner:
- Wesendonck-Lieder (5)
- Dich, teure Halle (from Tannhauser)
- Allmächt’ge Jungfrau! (from Tannhäuser)
- Johohoe! Traft ihr das Schiff im Meere an ‘Senta’s Ballad’ (from Der fliegende Holländer)
- Mild und leise ‘Isolde’s Liebestod’ (from Tristan und Isolde)
Performed by Jessye Norman (soprano)
Jessye Norman is certainly one of our greatest singers ever. Whether in the intimate setting of a small concert hall in London, or the huge space of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, she can give each listener the sense that her song is directed straight at her/im.
Jessye Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1945. She studied at Howard University, the Peabody Conservatory and at the University of Michigan. In 1968 she won the Munich International Music Competition, and this led to an invitation to sing in Berlin at the Deutsche Oper, where she made her debut as Elisabeth in Wagner’s Tannhäuser.
After that her career blossomed and she went on to conquer the world’s greatest opera houses including La Scala in Milan and the Metropolitan in New York. One of her greatest triumphs in New York was in 1982, in Robert Wilson’s “Great Day in the Morning”, and in 1989 she was invited to sing the Marseillaise for the 14 July celebrations in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
The music on these CD’s presents a cross-section of Jessye Norman’s repertory, in German and French opera, in Lieder and mélodie, in oratorio and even operetta.
Ms. Norman shows us many shades and colors, ranging from Wagner to twentieth century compositions. Ms. Norman is my kind of singer: dramatic, moving and vocally perfect.
Here is Jessey Norman, recording “Carmen”:
http://youtu.be/gaM8QbcVPtU
And here she is in Strauss’ – Four Last Songs, ‘Beim Schlafengehen’
Tags: Jessey Norman, Wagner, Brahms, Berlioz, Strauss, Schubert Ravel