La Jaconde

July 19, 2010 10:11 AM

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

This live recording of Liebestod is pretty good too.

posted by Evstar (7 comments total)

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