The Grammy winning opera and concert singer is dead. She was 74.
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In addition to Jessye Norman, this event paid homage to the shamefully obscure soprano Sissieretta Jones—once billed as “The Black Patti.”
They’ll say, “Norman’s back at last!”
Coming this fall on a basic cable channel near you, Ultimate Diva Jessye Norman tries her hand at situation comedy, playing a 30-something bachelor girl who returns to Manhattan in search of adventure and romance.
Miss Jessye Norman (not pictured!) grants what can only be described as the definitively definitive Diva Interview.
The increasingly protean Jessye Norman intones the classic American anthem “Midnight Special.”
Well, it’s finally happened. Jessye Norman has reached that moment in her career when she starts pronouncing the word “costume” with the accent on the second syllable.
“…she, according to the habit of women and cats, who do not come when you call them, but come when you refrain from calling them, -she halted in front of me and spoke to me.” (Prosper Mérimée)
Your doyenne makes fun of Jessye Norman from time to time here at parterre.com, because we love her, you know. So it is with particular delight that La Cieca wishes La Jess “toi toi toi” on her Broadway debut in the hit musical Rock of Ages.
Can it be that in mid-July we are already thinking about the last days of summer? Well, La Cieca is, especially since she’s just found out that Robert Wilson‘s Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation will offer the unlikely duo of Rufus Wainwright and Jessye Norman in a concert entitled “Last Song of Summer” on August 30.…
But what could be a more perfect salute to Bastille Day than this celebrated 1989 video of Jessye Norman festooned in the Tricouleur and belting out “La Marseillaise?” Â [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/1QQ2k3UpHwQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]
La Cieca would not venture to say which of the many selections on the Jessye Norman – A Portrait DVD is the funniest. But this one is certainly right up there. [kml_flashembed movie=”http://youtube.com/v/8noeFpdfWcQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Also, though it’s been said before, it bears repeating:
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