# Just tried to read Jessye Norman's Autobiography



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

What a dull, dull, dull book! Quit about a third of the way in. A tell all book by Kitty Kelly would have been so much more fun. Everything seemed so edited and filtered. I was thinking of doing a speech on her but zero interesting anecdotes. The book is Stand Up Straight and Sing. Should have been Lie Down and Go to Sleep.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'll trust you and assume that your review is a lot more fun than the book. Reviews like that could have saved me a lot of stultifying reads.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Is that the one where she keeps mentioning how 'humbled' she was to receive such-an-such an award or accolade? So humbled in fact that she was obliged to mention how often she'd been humbled.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> What a dull, dull, dull book! Quit about a third of the way in. A tell all book by Kitty Kelly would have been so much more fun. Everything seemed so edited and filtered. I was thinking of doing a speech on her but zero interesting anecdotes. The book is Stand Up Straight and Sing. Should have been Lie Down and Go to Sleep.


Yep. Not all great artists are great people. They do say you should never meet your heroes, don't they.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Absolutely the worst opera (opera????) book I have ever read.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> Absolutely the worst opera (opera????) book I have ever read.


Nina, thanks. Glad I wasn't alone. Very little to none about her voice or singing the roles or working with other artists. No gossip:-( I used to be WILD about her. Now I still get a great thrill from some of her singing, but she comes off as a manufactured person. She once asked one of her gay friends how she could become truly "grande". She could be mesmerizing in concert. The big huff she made when the airline wouldn't allow her to call the theatre made me lose some respect for her. Also her complete lack of humor about her size or any reference to it. In her book she never mentioned losing 100 pounds. That was a really " big" deal I think. Debbie Voigt, who comes off as a real person, was very open about her struggles and we love her for it. I got the book to come up with material to use in a speech about her and other than her remarkable voice I have really nothing interesting to say that is not negative. I think I'll talk about Caballe instead.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> Absolutely the worst opera (opera????) book I have ever read.


I have finished about 35 pages and then ... enough


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Will quickly add a personal anecdote.

30 years ago when we started our business I hurt my back for the first time and it just wasn't improving. We weren't paying salaries yet so a visit to a Physio was out of the question. Luckily the mother of one of my partners was a very successful Physio and she offered to give me free treatement in her clinic overlooking Hyde Park. She knew I loved Opera and told me that she couldn't say why she was coming but that I should check out who was sitting in the waiting area as the next patient.

So I have been within 5 feet of the Diva!

Please don't tell me the book is even duller than that!:lol:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Belowpar said:


> Will quickly add a personal anecdote.
> 
> 30 years ago when we started our business I hurt my back for the first time and it just wasn't improving. We weren't paying salaries yet so a visit to a Physio was out of the question. Luckily the mother of one of my partners was a very successful Physio and she offered to give me free treatement in her clinic overlooking Hyde Park. She knew I loved Opera and told me that she couldn't say why she was coming but that I should check out who was sitting in the waiting area as the next patient.
> 
> ...


Oh, yes. Yours is much better. She had problems with her back. Likely it was from the enormous backside which she had, even when she lost weight. I have met her and she was very nice. Very pretty in person.I am dissapointed I can't use some of her fabulous glamour shots for my video since I am not giving the speech now. She could be very glamorous. She was very plain Jane when she was young, though. Hair-weaves and makeup helped a lot.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Oh, yes. Yours is much better. She had problems with her back. Likely it was from the enormous backside which she had, even when she lost weight. I have met her and she was very nice. Very pretty in person.I am dissapointed I can't use some of her fabulous glamour shots for my video since I am not giving the speech now. She could be very glamorous. She was very plain Jane when she was young, though. Hair-weaves and makeup helped a lot.


Do you know she had a Dutch designer for all those very big dresses she wore?
He even made the one for the Paris extravaganza


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Most all the reviews on Amazon were soooooo positive of this book that I wonder if they were sent in by her friends. Still, I found a newspaper review that carried what I said bit further: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...traight-and-Sing-by-Jessye-Norman-review.html


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Ah, that's the review I recall, so damning it became a minor news story of its own.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

The only reviews on Amazon to which I give any credence are those posted by myself and even with them I'm never too sure! So many of them are completely at odds with my own thoughts that I often sit saying to myself it must be me. It's the old saying about the mother watching her son marching through the village - "would you credit it, everyone's out of step but my Johnny".


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Great artists in any field share many attributes. The best of these in my opinion are talent, application and dedication. However the worst of these are massive egos, a total lack of empathy for those they think "don't understand the sacrifices they have made to get to the top", a total lack of self-awareness and the belief that they are never wrong. If enough people tell you that you are a god or a goddess enough times eventually you are going to start believing it to be true. Take the highly paid prima donnas of professional soccer for example. They are paid an extraordinary amount of money whether or not they actually carry out the job they were employed to do.

"Sorry boss, I've got a bit of a tender hamstring, might need to rest up for a couple of weeks. Don't worry about the win bonus, I can survive on my basic £100K a week".

How often do you hear that tale of woe. Same with singers. How often do they cancel at the drop of a hat. I would not be a happy bunny if I'd paid the prices Covent Garden charge to find that the artist I specifically wanted to see was feeling a bit under the weather. Yes I appreciate that the voice is subject to the vagaries of everyday life but in all honesty do you believe with all your heart that every occasion is genuine. Maybe I'm too cynical but I don't. I'm sure if I had called in sick as often as some of these guys and gals do, I would shortly have been seeking alternative employment. At the end of the day singers and instrumental performers are all employees and we are their employers paying their not inconsiderable wages. I wonder how ill they would be if their contracts stipulated that if they failed to fulfill the terms of that contract that not only would they not be paid, there would be a financial penalty for non-appearance. I think they would be on the stage with an IV drip! They are paid well to do a job and for opera that job is singing _*and*_ acting. To act convincingly you need to be able to convince me that you look the part as well as sounding it. If more companies took a firmer line on this, who knows, there might be a change or at least other good singers might get a chance. Last year I went to CG to see FROSCH. Johan Botha, an average singer, stood like a tree in every scene he was in. Not exactly the fairy tale emperor I had paid £370 for my wife and I to watch. Maybe his voice might alter if he lost 70lbs. But I'm prepared to take that chance for the sake of veracity.

Sorry for the rant but the stuff about La Norman just revived previous thoughts.


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