La Jaconde
July 19, 2010 10:11 AM   Subscribe

Jessye Norman sings with her eyes. (youtube.com)

This live recording of Liebestod is pretty good too.
posted by Evstar (7 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
She's my absolute favorite performer of the Liebestod. Also of Strauss's "Four Last Songs."
posted by dnash at 10:48 AM on July 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


Simply beautiful.
posted by arto at 11:19 AM on July 19, 2010


If you're in Europe and you like her, you can catch a rare performance at Olympia in Paris on 19 November. According to the site, it'll be "spirituals, gospels, Ellington and Gershwin songs."
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:27 PM on July 19, 2010


My favorite Annie Leibovitz photograph - and my favorite photograph of any singer in any genre.

Norman's recording of Strauss' Four Last Songs is the music I want played at my funeral.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:39 PM on July 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


I actually thought, maybe.. that she'd be blowing air out her eyes and controlling the pitch, and I was disappointed to find that she was quite a conventional, albeit very good singer. I doubt I'm alone on this.
posted by hanoixan at 2:43 PM on July 19, 2010


Truly amazing - it almost makes me like Wagner!

Also, I wish all opera singers were this convincing when viewed up close....
**cough cough Kathleen Battle cough cough**
posted by Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy at 4:17 PM on July 19, 2010


Norman's performance of Purcell's "When I am Laid In Earth" popped up on some PBS-type Arts channel coincidentally while I was retrieving a missed phone call message relating that my mother was unexpectedly on her deathbed. I don't think I've ever been gripped by a piece of music in such a way before or since & I'm not sure I want to. It was almost participatory in the "participation mystique" sense.
posted by eegphalanges at 1:05 AM on July 20, 2010


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