parterre box

50 comments

• Cherubino says:

  Is it lupus she has? OMG — I didn’t know and am heartbroken. My closest friend has it, and if Ms. Norman can muster the strength to sing, I’d be inclined to cut her LOTS of slack. Thanks, La Cieca, for this exquisite reminder of what she was like in her prime.

  on May 5, 2008 at 11:40 PM
• Reggiani says:

  Her Met debut role, Cassandra I think, in Les Troyens (1983) was televised on PBS. She was huge, and the next time I saw her, she was normal size. I remember saying at the time, she saw herself on tv and went on a diet.

  on May 6, 2008 at 12:14 AM
• ruxton says:

  One thing about La Norman- when she is good she is very very very good. Two wonderful clips indeed- as for the dress- the cut and style is fine…but the print!! Undoubtedly she has some gay friends but on this occasion they must have been smoking something.

  I don’t know what it is with these Divas but wow so many of the them show shocking dress sense. I still can’t forget dear Lucia Popp singing like heaven itself in a dress with a big glitterey butterfly on the bodice… surely she had gay friends?

  On Sunday last I went to a recital with a young upcoming soprano doing a very good job of some very testing stuff- but the outfit was frighteningly dreadful. The hair was lank and just hung there with a glitter clasp on the back of the head – bright red lipstick with long drop earings, an ornate large necklace as well as a long neck scarf, a fine knit top that displayed and highlighted the rolls beneath all the way down to a glitter and sequined aqua skirt, bare legs and high heels- the overall effect was like a dumpster done up for Christmas.

  All through the recital all I could think of was “no gay friends… no gay friends” and remember dear old Mennagini (sp) who knew what he was doing when he took la Divina to the leading coutouriers and said “make her lottsa clothes an make’r look good!!” – so many of them could take a page out of that book!

  Before any Diva steps on stage it should be compulsory to go through a gay- once over!

  on May 6, 2008 at 5:25 AM
• Alice Roberts says:

  Before any Diva steps on stage it should be compulsory to go through a gay- once over! Well I second that.

  on May 6, 2008 at 6:28 AM
• trappole says:

  To ruxton:

  Seriously? Jesus Christmas- she must be color-blind in addition to having no gay friends.

  on May 6, 2008 at 10:23 AM
• Lucky Pierre says:

  well, i remember watching that concert, i think she also sang arianna (haydn?), barber’s cleopatra, and … now i can’t remember what else she sang. something to do with “women of legend and history.” did she sing berlioz (troyens)? immolation scene?

  what’s with the gay fashion stereotype? i’d flunk that test for sure. ok, maybe not. i’ve seen some of these dresses and even i would be horrified. i think i remember one of susan dunn’s rare appearances (tucker gala?), and she was hideous.

  on May 6, 2008 at 10:28 AM
• kashania says:

  Lucky Pierre: I don’t recall her singing Berlioz and the Immolation. She did sing from the bif monologue from Cappriccio and Dido’s Lament.

  on May 6, 2008 at 10:33 AM
• leontyneschiava says:

  Joan of Arc if I recall correctly

  on May 6, 2008 at 10:58 AM
• harry says:

  As one who designs a few select fashion creations for some friends, what can one say? A display of perfect singing technique. A perfect musical performance from Ms Jessye: but being sung in such an appaling dress (‘casual throw-over’). The designer, I feel sure was not gay, but some ‘kinko’ dressmaker having a far out hallucigenic op-art trip. It looks like a gigantic tatty floating fabric- poster, flaaping in the breeze. Any wonder why fashion cat walk shows are ususally attention getting freak shows? When one can remembers Jessye, coming out on a recital stage in some instances, in beauifully flattering black traffeta : one is gobsmacked at the clip, displayed here. Then again I have seen her present in what appeared like a lurid colored big flowered ‘Mu-Mu’.suitable for Bloody Mary of South Pacific fame.
  We still love you Jessye!

  I am smiling,at rhe moment – imaging ‘commandant’ Schwarzkopf if she appeared wearing the same ‘poster cover’, when she screwed up Schubert and Mozart with her consistent constipated ‘banshee’ technique.

  on May 6, 2008 at 1:37 PM
• Regina delle fate says:

  Jessye was considered for Donna Anna in the Colin Davis recording of Don Giovanni but in the end they took Martina Arroyo whose coloratura isn’t legendary either. But you hear glimpses of the young Jessye in this clip, and you can almost hear that she studied with Elisabeth Grümmer in Berlin. The only Mozart operas she sang, I think, were La finta giardiniera in the German version on record, and a live concert of Idomeneo, in which she sang Idamante with Davis in Italy. In the early days when she lived in a tiny mews apartment in London, waited on hand and foot by exquisite young men, she was a delightful person too.

  on May 6, 2008 at 4:10 PM