Jessye Norman

Oh, this is a tremendous shock: the great Jessye Norman has died, age 74. The Times, which is still preparing a full obituary, uses the words "regal" and "majestic" in their headline and lede, and those are exactly right.

Her family's statement to the AP says that she died of septic shock and multiple organ failure following complications of a spinal injury she suffered in 2015.

I saw her live only once, in one of the odder American Masters concerts, singing Cage. This was a few years ago; the soprano was well into her 60s and sounded great. You could check out her Sieglinde in the videos of the Met Ring, from 1990, where she is in magnificent voice, or the Met video of Les Troyens, where she is a splendid Cassandre.

Here she is in Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs:





Obits and memorials:

• Dan Wakin and Michael Cooper, NY Times
• Anthony Tommasini, NY Times
• Alex Ross, New Yorker
• Mark Swed, LA Times, appreciation
• Mesfin Fekadu, AP/Washington Post
• James Jorden, Parterre Box
• Thomas May, Memeteria
• Tim Ashley, Guardian, on her greatest performances
• NY Times writers on her greatest performances (with YouTube, Spotify, etc.)

Tommasini discusses her mannerisms and vocal decline. The WaPost obit names a sister and a brother as survivors, as does the Times. There is no discussion of marriage, children, etc., even "the soprano never married." 

Another item: she never sang staged opera at San Francisco Opera, where the archive list her in two concerts. At the Met, she sang only 80 performances, which doesn't even put her on the performer report, which starts with singers who have sung at least 100 performances there. (Nonetheless, Gelb trumpeted this as something great. Ahem.) A great career with an interesting and unusual shape.