# Jessye Norman has died :(



## JoeSaunders (Jan 29, 2015)

https://apnews.com/b486761f80434b1f...AP&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter

A truly fabulous singer.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Very sad. A remarkable, distinctive singer.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Was it widely known that she had health problems?


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## RockyIII (Jan 21, 2019)

I'm sorry to hear the news. Thanks for posting the link.


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## Guest (Sep 30, 2019)

Alway sad to hear that a great artist has passed.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

Very sad indeed. RIP.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Sorry to hear this. I hadn't heard about her injury.


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## Jermaine (Apr 23, 2016)

May her soul rest in peace.

I loved her interview on HardTalk few years ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p027dft4

So much truth. ​


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

A truly fabulous voice. She once said: "Pigeonholing is only interesting to pigeons."

I think I will play her Leiberstod with Karajan today in memory.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Those stupid news reports; " she was the first black singer who made a career", hello....Leontyne Price is 92 so make up the mats.


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## Fat Bob (Sep 25, 2015)

Very sad news indeed. I too hadn't heard that she had health problems and find it rather refreshing that in this day and age, someone famous managed to keep their health problems a private matter. In her honour, I will be giving this disc a spin today:









R.I.P.


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## asiago12 (May 2, 2019)

Great singer... .R.I.P.

Now the "angels" can hear your voice..










I'm a relative new fan of opera.. and She is one of the voices that really impressed me..


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Fat Bob said:


> Very sad news indeed. I too hadn't heard that she had health problems and find it rather refreshing that in this day and age, someone famous managed to keep their health problems a private matter. In her honour, I will be giving this disc a spin today:
> 
> View attachment 124595
> 
> ...


The first of the Four Last Songs is my favorite thing that she sang. Her voice was so f**king opulent and soaring. She never sang the first and the third of the Four Last Songs after the weight loss as they went too high for her after the diet. I am sad I never heard her when she was fat and her voice at it's peak like it is on this disc. I am glad her health struggle is over and she can be at peace.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Thanks for expressing those sentiments so eloquently.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

She was great. Time to hear the Strauss and Wagner.


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## Lensky (May 8, 2016)

February 2019...(after 7'30'')... a very great and moving interview

In Conversation with Jessye Norman


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

A very great singer. This thread should be in the main part of the forum. She wasn't only an opera singer.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

This is a fascinating article on her lost recordings. Ages ago I had a LP of pirated recordings of hers and what i want most to have again was the big mezzo aria from Oedipus Rex . In it she dips not into chest register but into a Wotan register. Her lower register was never so impressive later on. She shook the earth beneath her on this. Later when she did the video when she was slender and looked great all the specialness was gone 
https://www.artsjournal.com/condemned/2019/10/jessye-normans-lost-isolde-and-so-much-else/.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I only knew her version of Mon Coeur from Samson and Delilah after her weight loss. This version is much nicer. It is before the weight loss. Her face is much prettier in close ups and the voice also much better with a really glorious high note at the end. She looks really marvelous here.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)




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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

Seattleoperafan said:


> The first of the Four Last Songs is my favorite thing that she sang. Her voice was so f**king opulent and soaring. She never sang the first and the third of the Four Last Songs after the weight loss as they went too high for her after the diet. I am sad I never heard her when she was fat and her voice at it's peak like it is on this disc. I am glad her health struggle is over and she can be at peace.


Must have been some kind of premonition - I played this recording only two days before she died. A great loss to the world


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Archival audio of Jessye Norman in her early 20s performing "Allmächt'ge Jungfrau!" from Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser in Kresge Auditorium on Aug. 3, 1968. 
Scroll to bottom of page:
https://www.interlochen.org/story/interlochen-mourns-passing-jessye-norman


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

Fat Bob said:


> Very sad news indeed. I too hadn't heard that she had health problems and find it rather refreshing that in this day and age, someone famous managed to keep their health problems a private matter. In her honour, I will be giving this disc a spin today:
> 
> View attachment 124595
> 
> ...


This was the CD that introduced me to great singing as an 18yo music student. She was my first diva. This is still one of my all time favourite CD's.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Very rare recording of Jessye singing the soprano part in the Verdi Requiem (she more regularly performed the mezzo part). Possiby my favourite Jessye performance and fairly apt, given the circumstances.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Very rare recording of Jessye singing the soprano part in the Verdi Requiem (she more regularly performed the mezzo part). Possiby my favourite Jessye performance and fairly apt, given the circumstances.


I discovered this last year and was very, very impressed. It suits her voice because all the climaxes are no higher than A#, which suits her range. The only B is piano and her B is smaller than the rest of her voice. I think it is one of the finest soprano parts in the Requiem I have heard. She is likely one of the few singers who sings both female parts with distinction.


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