Have a Jessye Norman Christmas

Have a Jessye Norman Christmas

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norman lebrecht

December 24, 2019

In memoriam, here she is singing out in 1988 with Robert De Cormier and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral.

Sheer magnificence.

We will not see her like again.

Comments

  • Rob says:

    She was one of the greats with a distinctive heft to the voice.its a shame she didn’t perform in a Mahler 8.

  • Robin Blonstein says:

    Thanks Norman for this. This was the year I graduated from college at Brandeis. Jessye was there receiving an honorary degree. She sang. It was glorious. A great personal memory.

    • Petros Linardos says:

      She also received an honorary D Music at the 1988 Harvard commencement, but she didn’t sing (bummer). Funny, though well deserved!

  • Ken says:

    Obviously, I didn’t write BOO. VPO.

  • Una says:

    I was in this as a soprano in the professional British ad hoc choir – a while host of who became very well-known solo singers in that choir if you look hard! It was done in Ely Cathedral in June or July – the middle of the summer of 1987 that went out on 23 December at 11pm on ITV. It went all round the world so lots of royalties in those days. Now available on a DVD for which we don’t get royalties!! Ha, ha, we now live in different financial times to those of 1987. A very happy Jessye Christmas!

  • Évelyne G G says:

    DIVINE! INSPIRATIONAL!

  • Stephen Gibson says:

    When Ms Norman sang she had the gift to shrink the room into such an intimate setting each person would experience the event as though she was singing just for them for a private concert. What a woman!!! What a gift.

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