The Question Mark Over the Death of a Diva

[PeterRS]

To those who enjoy classical music (horrible term but I can't think of a more obvious one) the name Jessye Norman on an ad for a concert or a CD or a DVD was enough to ensure a sell-out. Along with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa she was the reining worldwide diva for more than four decades. To the non classical world, she is best known perhaps for her appearance in 1989 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution when she sang the Marseillaise draped in the French flag on the back of truck as it progressed down the Champs Elysees. Or singing at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in her home town of Atlanta in 1996.

A big and tall African American with a soprano voice described as a "grand mansion of sound" - having heard her several times I would actually change that to a magnificent mansion of sound - that thrilled listeners with the intimate delicacy of quiet passages to the pure thrilling majesty of the highest of high notes, she died in 2019 aged 74. I addition to that amazing soprano voice, she was incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable. I heard from a friend that when she did a tour around the National Museum in Taipei, there was virtually nothing she did not know about Chinese jade. Then, surprisingly, she had rarely sung in public since 2015. 

An exclusive article in yesterday's Guardian explains that her death was not as earlier described. Suffering from constant back pain, she had been persuaded by her doctor in America to consult a specialist team at London's London Bridge Hospital. They advised she undergo a little performed procedure which they had performed before. This was to leave her paralysed from the waist down and the desperate sadness of her final years when she was rarely seen in public. While in London she had commenced a lawsuit against the doctors and the hospital which is, like several other London hospitals, owned by an American Insurance giant HCA. Following her death, her brother has taken over the suit. Naturally, no-one is talking.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/30/jessye-normans-family-sue-over-treatment-that-allegedly-left-her-paralysed

All this reminds me of the fate of the voice of Dame Julie Andrews. With a voice of extraordinary range, she had been appearing in the stage version of her earlier hit film "Victor Victoria" when informed that she had developed a small polyp on her vocal chords. Her husband, the movie director Blake Edwards, persuaded her to have it removed. The 1997 operation failed and she was left without that amazing voice. A substantial settlement was agreed.

Unlike the case of Jessye Norman, though, Dame Julie was able to resurrect her career as an actor. This is a short song from one of The Four Last Songs written by Richard Strauss two years before his death in 1950.  This is "Beim Schlafengehen" (When I am falling asleep) which beautifully illustrates her extraordinary voice with amazing breath control and notes that seem to float in the air. The theme of the song is basically "All my senses now want to sink into slumber."

 

[msclelovr]

Thanks for posting this @PeterRS.
 

For many years, I attended every performance Jessie Norman gave both in recital and in opera in Europe and the US. Her voice was truly magnificent in its prime.
 

The last time I heard her sing was when she gave a recital and a masterclass at UCLA (in 2008). I talked to her socially only twice: once years ago after dinner at a rather aristocratic “ball” in England) and the second time when she happened to be staying in my building on the UES (in 2012 IIRC). 
 

Ms Norman was quite a diva (in the popular sense) at times. I was once very amused to see her arrive at a London venue in a chauffeured Mini. She was sitting in the back but did manage to emerge somewhat elegantly from the tiny car. And did you know @PeterRS that she was the only soprano that opera houses worldwide paid at the same, very elevated rate that each of the ‘Four Tenors’ earned?

[PeterRS]

Fascinating post @msclelovr. Thank you.

Regarding fees, I think you may have omitted Dame Kiri Te Kanawa who, at least for a time and perhaps only in certain Opera Houses, was another diva able to command the highest fees. But then I recall that Ms. Norman's appearances on the opera stages were far fewer than Dame Kiri's. Surely that can not only have been a question of fee and more her personal choice?

What I find so interesting about her is that at the start of her career she had to move to spend years in Europe to become known. She got a contract with the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and made her debut there as Elizabeth in Wagner's Tannhauser in 1968. Her American opera debut did not come until a full 14 years later, and then it was not with the Met but in Philadelphia. Little wonder that she made her home in London for many years. Several other Americans who were to become major opera singers had to do the same. There were just not the opportunities in those days within the USA.

Having seen only half a dozen of her recitals and concerts, I was always amazed that, despite her large size, she always seemed just to glide on to the stage.

I only had the opportunity of meeting her once. Back in late 1989 she gave a concert for the opening of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. This was just a few months after Tiananmen Square. For her first encore, she waited until the audience were completely silent. She then started singing solo and very quietly "Amazing Grace". As she did so, she very slowly turned full circle so that she sang to every single member of that audience. There were many tears.

After that concert, a very good friend of mine was giving a small dinner for her and I was thrilled to be invited. She was quite wonderful company and clearly had a huge sense of fun. On a more serious note and going back to your point, the Chairman of the Opera Board at London's Royal Opera was also a guest. A very boring man, Sir James Somebody, he really put his foot in it when during a slight lull in the conversation, he piped up, "Ms. Norman, you were a sensation when you first sang with us at the Royal Opera and we have tried so many times to have you back, even offering you your pick of roles. Why do you not return?" This was a huge breach of etiquette at someone else's private dinner! But quick as a flash, Ms. Norman put this idiot in his place. "Well, Sir James, the answer is very simple. You just will not pay my fee!"

[msclelovr]

You’ve made me recall many happy evenings @PeterRS with this thread. I must play some of the recordings I have of Jessye Norman (JN).
 

I wouldn’t have said that she performed on opera stages much less than Kiri Te Kanawa (KTK) but I was always more of a fan of JN than KTK. I saw both in various operas but I saw JN in many different roles. Certainly JN appeared very often in recital whereas I only attended 2 recitals by KTK. IMO KTK had a lovely voice in its prime but it was a small voice and didn’t work well in large opera houses or large concert halls.

Just to add to what you wrote about encores, early training and fees. 
(1) I always felt JN was relaxed and at her best in the encores and I looked forward to her choices. I heard her sing He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands to close various recitals. At other times, she sang American spirituals. 

(2) I recall an interview she gave on BBC Radio years ago about her life and career. She spoke about working in Germany and how keen she was to be taught by one particular teacher (IIRC Pierre Bernac) in another city: he refused but she persisted. He then told JN he could only see her at 7am each day. She said “so I got up each day at 5am for 3 years to have my lessons with him”.
I was very amused in the same interview when the respectful interviewer observed JN’s voice wasn’t exactly soprano nor a mezzo, and asked how she would describe it. JN immediately retorted “I’’M A SINGER!” in her original Georgia accent, and not the posh English tones she sometimes affected. 
 

(3) I heard about the fees privately from one Opera House General Manager. Subsequently I confirmed what was said with another General Manager. At that time, early 1980s, the Four Tenors were each being paid US$10,000 per night. JN insisted upon the same fee and was paid it. Both General Managers confirmed that JN was the only female singer to be paid so much, and one added no-one else “came close”. 

[PeterRS]

4 hours ago, msclelovr said:

I wouldn’t have said that she performed on opera stages much less than Kiri Te Kanawa (KTK) but I was always more of a fan of JN than KTK. I saw both in various operas but I saw JN in many different roles.

The voices were really so different and the repertoire suited to each also so different that i think a comparison is unfair on both. JN had a much larger, more dramatic voice with a beautiful mezzo quality when called for, although she always said she never wanted to be categorised. There was only one JN!. I first heard her in recital and then in a concert version of Die Walkure Act 1 in which she was a superb Sieglinde. But many of her roles could never have been sung by KTK - Wagner, the Ariadne Prima Donna, Cassandra in The Trojans, Aida, Alceste, and a wonderful Jocasta in Oedipus Rex amongst others. I have the amazing DVD which she recorded with Ozawa and the tenor Philip Langridge at Ozawa's Saito Kinen Festival. This was staged by Julie Taylor before she became a worldwide name with her staging of The Lion King.

JN was also at home in comedy, at least in recordings. She loved France and worked several times with the lesser company in Toulouse under Michael Plasson. I have the CDs of her sparkling La Belle Helene. The full opera recording is available on youtube. It is full of typical Offenbach foot-tapping tunes.

But equally JN would not have been at home in most of the roles KTK tackled. KTK was essentially a lyric soprano. I think she was unquestionably one of the finest Mozart and Strauss opera singers of her day with great success also in some Puccini and as Tatyana. She also tackled some earlyish Verdi, especially Amelia in Boccanegra which I hugely enjoyed. And of course as Desdemona, even if the recording with Pavarotti for Solti's Farewell Concerts in Chicago was a near disaster with Pavarotti clearly unable to sing the role! I heard her sing it nearer the start of her career and she carried it off with great conviction and finesse. But then again she did have competition which JN rarely had. For me, Dame Margaret Price, for example, had the more glorious voice especially in the Mozart/Strauss repertoire. It is such a shame that she did not like travelling and so confined most of her career to Cologne, Munich, London and San Francisco. Also that there are so few videos available of her singing. ,Gundula Janowitz was also wonderful in more or less the same KTK repertoire. But whereas Dame Margaret was very much a diva backstage I understand, Dame Kiri appeared to let it be known that she was a diva everywhere!

[PeterRS]

Having posted a Jessye Norman video, I think I should balance this with one of Dame KTK. While her largest audience was no doubt singing Handel (wearing a ghastly hat!) at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, I am certain the next largest was when she sang in the wonderful Merchant Ivory film "Room With a View" set in Florence with a wonderful cast of British actors. KTK sang the theme song used in the movie. This was the popular Puccini aria "O mio babbino caro" (Oh, my beloved Father) from the comic opera Gianni Schicchi. 

 

[PeterRS]

On 10/2/2021 at 11:27 PM, PeterRS said:

Gundula Janowitz was also wonderful in more or less the same KTK repertoire

Having mentioned Gundula Janowitz, an interesting note: last night she was given the industry's prestigious Gramophone Magazine Lifetime Award. Equally interesting in a way, David Bowie considered her recording of the Strauss "Beim Schlafengehen" with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic "transcendental - It aches with love for a life that is quietly fading. I know of no other piece of music, nor any performance, which moves me quite like this". I love the almost bell-like quality of her silvery voice which I first noticed when she sang Sieglinde in Karajan's recording of Wagner's Ring cycle.