Jessye Norman

杰西·諾曼自幼在唱詩班接觸音樂，兒童時期就表現(xiàn)出了非凡的音樂才華。1968年她在慕尼黑國際聲樂大賽中一舉奪魁，成為國際聲樂界冉冉升起的新星。隨后她登臺柏林德國大劇院、米蘭LaScala大劇院、英國皇家歌劇院、美國紐約林肯中心等世界頂級藝術(shù)殿堂，高亢嘹亮而且音域?qū)拸V的聲線使她穩(wěn)坐“世界第一女高音”的寶座。
杰西·諾曼的演唱清新且富于生氣，渾厚且富有色彩。她橫跨高中低音，高音圓潤、中音結(jié)實、低音渾厚，嗓音的穿透力極強。最難得的是杰西·諾曼十分注重對作品的整體把握，歌曲的感情內(nèi)涵詮釋準確到位，特別是控制氣息的本領(lǐng)無人能及。她演唱黑人靈歌很多時候都是半聲唱出來的，這種獨特的發(fā)聲方法在樂壇相當罕見，堪稱一絕。
杰西·諾曼灌錄的唱片在世界各地也大受歡迎，舒曼的《婦女的愛情與生活》、勃拉姆斯的《藝術(shù)歌曲集》、拉威爾的《夏夜》等作品經(jīng)過她的詮釋成為唱片史上的經(jīng)典版本。她熱愛各種類型的音樂，歌劇、清唱劇、藝術(shù)歌曲、民歌、靈歌，甚至流行歌曲等都是她涉足的領(lǐng)域。杰西·諾曼今年獲得了第48屆“格萊美終生成就獎”，此前她曾先后在1989年、1990年和1999年3度獲得“格萊美最佳歌劇獎”。
A prominent American soprano, Jessye Norman was the daughter of a schoolteacher and an insurance broker. She started singing spirituals at the age of four at Mount Calvary Baptist Church; one Saturday while doing her chores she heard an opera for the first time, broadcast on the radio. She became an instant opera fan and started listening to recordings of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price. Nat "King" Cole was also a major inspiration for her.
When she was 16, she started studying at Howard University in Washington, where her voice teacher was Carolyn Grant. She sang in the university chorus and had a job as soloist the Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ. In 1965 she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. She continued her studies at Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where her most important studies were with Elizabeth Mannion and Pierre Bernac.
In 1968 she won the Munich Competition, leading to her operatic debut as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser in Berlin. A major European operatic career quickly developed: she appeared as Meyerbeer's L'Africaine at Maggio Musicale in Florence in 1971, Verdi's Aïda at La Scala in Milan in 1972, and as Cassandra in Berlioz's Les Troyens at London's Covent Garden the same year. These roles are all princesses and bespeak a major part of her stage persona, a commanding and noble bearing, partly due to her uncommon height and size. But this is even more a function of her unique, rich, and powerful voice. She has an uncommonly wide range, encompassing all female voice registers from contralto to high dramatic soprano.
As her operatic career developed, she also made important recital debuts, including London and New York in 1973. She made an extensive North American concert debut in 1976 and 1977, but did not appear in opera in the United States until 1982. This was with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, in a double bill as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Queen Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. Her Metropolitan Opera debut was as Cassandra in 1983, the opening night of the Met's centennial season.
Her interpretation of Strauss's Four Last Songs is legendary. Its slowness is controversial, but the tonal qualities of her voice are ideal for these final works of the great Romantic German lieder tradition. She also sings the Gurrelieder of Arnold Schoenberg, and the same composer's Erwartung. She sang that opera on a memorable double bill at the Met with Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, which was broadcast nationally. She has also appeared on live broadcasts of season-opening concerts of the New York Philharmonic.
In addition to the direct and emotionally expressive qualities of her singing, her performances also impress through formidable intellectual understanding of the music and its style, as well as first-rate musicianship. She studies the languages of the music she sings, and has been acclaimed in her singing of Mussorgsky songs in the original Russian, in the German Romantic lieder repertoire, and in French music from Berlioz to contemporary composers.