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American singer Jessye Norman, soprano whose voice was both dark and majestic had won audiences worldwide, died Monday in New York at the age of 74, following sepsis.
" It is with great sadness that we announce the death of the international star of the opera Jessye Norman, " said her family in a statement sent by a spokeswoman.
The singer who became an icon, who had marked the spirits in France singing "La Marseillaise" in 1989 for the bicentenary of the revolution, died of sepsis following the complications of a spinal injury suffered in 2015, according to the communicated.
Tributes began pouring in on Monday night. " The Met mourns Jessye Norman, one of the greatest sopranos of the last 50 years, " said the New York Opera, where she performed more than 80 times, in a repertoire ranging from Wagner to Poulenc, passing by Bartok, Schönberg and Strauss.
Young Black in a white medium
Born September 15, 1945 in Augusta, in a segregated state of Georgia, Jessye Norman, from a family of five, began to learn music from the church, singing the traditional "spirituals."
Growing up, she began to listen to radio operas, including those of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera, where she would become a star herself. " I do not remember a moment in my life where I was not trying to sing, " she said in 2014 on American radio NPR, after winning five Grammys, one of which was awarded his entire career in 2006.
A young black woman in a mostly white classical music milieu, she won a scholarship to study music at Howard University, a historically black institution in Washington. Engaged since 1968 - she was only 23 years old - at the Berlin Deutsche Oper, she started in France five years later, in Verdi's "Aïda".
She moved to Europe where, with her dark and pulpy timbre, she established herself as one of the most recognized dramatic sopranos, especially for her interpretations of Wagner.
committed
Jessye Norman was also a woman of conviction, socially engaged, especially for artists from disadvantaged backgrounds. In particular, she had founded the Jessye Norman School of the Arts in her hometown of Augusta, free for the most penniless.
If she had sung at the inauguration ceremonies of US presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, or for the 60th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1986, before receiving the National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama's hands in 2009, the singer had retired from the scene in recent years.
His most recent interviews date back to most of 2014, the year of the publication of his memoirs, "Stand Up Straight and Sing!".
( With AFP )
We will remember for a long time Jessye Norman. With her unforgettable grace in Verdi's Aida, the time she was suspending when she was performing in Aix-en-Provence, her moving Marseillaise for the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989. She will be missed. pic.twitter.com/eBxKnVxpOt
Franck Riester (@franckriester) October 1, 2019