Norman, Jessye

September 15, 1945

Born in Augusta, Georgia, opera singer Jessye Norman was a soprano of promise from an early age. At sixteen she entered the Marian Anderson competitions, and although she did not win, she auditioned at Howard University with Carolyn Grant. Her acceptance was delayed until she completed high school. She followed her undergraduate training at Howard, earning a bachelor's degree in music in 1967, with summer study at the Peabody Conservatory under Alice Duschak before enrolling at the University of Michigan for study with Elizabeth Mannion and Pierre Bernac.

A travel grant allowed Norman to enter the International Music Competition in Munich in 1968, where she won first place with performances of Dido's Lament (Henry Purcell) and "Voi lo sapete" from Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. She was immediately engaged for her operatic debut as Elisabeth in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser by the Deutsche Oper (1969), with which she later appeared in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida and Don Carlo, Meyerbeer's L'africaine, and as the Countess in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. In 1972 she sang Aida at La Scala and Cassandre in Covent Garden's production of Berlioz' Les Troyens, making her recital debuts in London and New York the next year.

Norman's American stage debut came on November 22, 1982, when she appeared as both Jocasta in Oedipus Rex (Stravinsky) and Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Opera Company of Philadelphia. The following year, she made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Cassandre in Berlioz' Les Troyens, subsequently offering a performance as Didon in the same opera, as well as the Prima Donna and Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss).

As recitalist, guest orchestral soloist, presenter of master classes, and recording artist, Norman was acknowledged as a musician of the highest rank. She was heard in nearly every major American city by 1990 and appeared frequently in telecasts starting in 1979 when she gave a concert version of the first act of Wagner's Die Walküre with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

Norman has excelled in French and German repertories, stylistically and linguistically, while remaining faithful to her roots in the spiritual. With a voice ranging from a dark mezzo-soprano to a dramatic soprano, she has not hesitated to reintroduce works outside of the mainstream repertory (e.g., Gluck and Haydn operas), or to perform songs of the musical theater. She has appeared on numerous recordings, including Beethoven's Fidelio, Berlioz' Mort de Cléopatre, Bizet's Carmen, Gluck's Alceste, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder, Strauss's Four Last Songs and Ariadne auf Naxos, Verdi's Aida, Wagner's Lohengrin and Die Walküre, and Weber's Euryanthe. Other notable recordings include Spirituals, Spirituals in Concert (with Kathleen Battle), and Jessye Norman at Notre-Dame.

Norman became the youngest recipient of the United States Kennedy Center Honors in 1997. In her hometown of Augusta, the amphitheatre and plaza overlooking the Savannah River have been named after her.

See also Anderson, Marian; Opera

Bibliography

Bernheimer, Martin. "Jessye Norman." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 13, p. 283. London: Grove, 1980.

Ewen, David. "Jessye Norman." In Musicians Since 1900: Performers in Concert and Opera. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1978, pp. 586–587.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Cornel West. The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.

dominique-renÉ de lerma (1996)
Updated by publisher 2005