The Very Best of Jessye Norman

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Release Date: 2nd Jul 2012
Catalogue No: 6217252
Label: Warner Classics
Series: The Very Best of...
Length: 2 hours 25 minutes

Excerpt, Wagner: Tannhäuser

Work length9:42

$2.60

$3.40

Jessye Norman (soprano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt

Dich, teure Halle, grüss' ich wieder (Elisabeth's Greeting) (Act II)

Track length3:30

$1.30

$1.70

Act III, Allmächt'ge Jungfrau, hör mein Flehen (Elisabeth's Prayer)

Track length6:12

$1.30

$1.70

Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer: Johohoe! Traft ihr das Schiff (Senta's Ballad) (Act II)

Work length8:35

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman (soprano)
Ambrosian Singers, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt

Wagner: Mild und leise 'Isolde's Liebestod' (from Tristan und Isolde)

Work length8:43

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman (soprano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt

Wagner: Wesendonck-Lieder (5)

Work length20:02

$6.50

$8.50

Irwin Gage (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

I. Der Engel

Track length3:05

$1.30

$1.70

II. Stehe still

Track length3:58

$1.30

$1.70

III. Im Treibhaus

Track length5:44

$1.30

$1.70

IV. Schmerzen

Track length2:25

$1.30

$1.70

V. Traume

Track length4:50

$1.30

$1.70

Schubert: Dem Unendlichen, D291 (Klopstock)

Work length4:48

$1.30

$1.70

Irwin Gage (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

Schubert: Der Winterabend (Es ist so still), D938

Work length8:51

$1.30

$1.70

Irwin Gage (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

Schubert: Auflösung, D807

Work length2:40

$1.30

$1.70

Irwin Gage (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem Op. 45: V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (Langsam)

Work length8:18

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman (soprano)
BBC Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Klaus Tennstedt, Richard Cooke

Offenbach: Barcarolle (from Les Contes d'Hoffmann)

Work length4:23

$1.30

$1.70

Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano), Jessye Norman (soprano)
Choeurs de l’Opéra National du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie de Bruxelles, Orchestre de l’Opéra National du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie de Bruxelles
Sylvain Cambreling

Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Act IV

Work length12:51

$3.90

$5.10

Brussels National Opera Chorus, Orchestre Symphonique de l'Opéra National, Bruxelles, Dale Duesing (baritone), Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano), Jessye Norman (soprano), Neil Shicoff (tenor), Gunter Wagner (director)
Chorus of the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Brussels, Orchestra of the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie, Brussels
Sylvain Cambreling

Vénus dit à Fortune (Giulietta, Chorus, Hoffmann, Schlemil)

Track length2:13

$1.30

$1.70

Qui connaît donc la souffrance...Hoffmann, vite, partons d'ici!...O Dieu, de quelle ivresse embrasses-tu mon âme (Giulietta / Choeurs / Hoffmann / Nicklausse)

Track length6:51

$1.30

$1.70

Jusqu'à là cependant affermis mon courage...Aujourd'hui, aujour'hui les larmes (Giulietta, Hoffmann)

Track length3:47

$1.30

$1.70

Ravel: Trois chansons madécasses

Work length15:55

$3.90

$5.10

Dalton Baldwin (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano), Michel Debost (flute), Renaud Fontanarosa (cello)

Nahandove

Track length6:56

$1.30

$1.70

Aoua

Track length5:25

$1.30

$1.70

Il est doux..

Track length3:34

$1.30

$1.70

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette Op. 17: Premier transports (Strophes)

Work length4:08

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman (soprano), Joseph Flummerfelt (director)
Philadelphia Orchestra, The Westminster Choir
Riccardo Muti

Ravel: Chanson du rouet

Work length4:13

$1.30

$1.70

Dalton Baldwin (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

Ravel: Si morne!

Work length4:20

$1.30

$1.70

Dalton Baldwin (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

Poulenc: Tu vois le feu du soir

Work length4:18

$1.30

$1.70

Irwin Gage (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

Poulenc: La Fraîcheur et le feu

Work length8:31

$9.10

$11.90

Irwin Gage (piano), Jessye Norman (soprano)

Rayon des yeux

Track length1:13

$1.30

$1.70

Le matin les branches attisent

Track length0:48

$1.30

$1.70

Tout disparut

Track length1:52

$1.30

$1.70

Dans les ténèbres du jardin

Track length0:25

$1.30

$1.70

Unis la fraîcheur et le feu

Track length1:27

$1.30

$1.70

Homme au sourir tendre

Track length1:51

$1.30

$1.70

La grande rivière qui va

Track length0:55

$1.30

$1.70

Excerpt, Offenbach: La Belle Helène

Work length15:10

$5.20

$6.80

Charles Burles (tenor), Nicole Carreras, Colette Alliot-Lugaz (soprano), Gabriel Bacquier (baritone), Gérard Desroches (baritone), Jacques Loreau (tenor), Jean-Philippe Lafont (bass-baritone), Jessye Norman (soprano), John Aler (tenor), Roger Trentin (tenor)
Chœur du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Choeurs du Capitole de Toulouse
Michel Plasson

Amours divins (Acte I)

Track length3:31

$1.30

$1.70

On me nomme Hélène la Blonde (Acte II)

Track length4:53

$1.30

$1.70

Là vrai, je ne suis pas coupable (Acte III)

Track length2:24

$1.30

$1.70

Elle vient, c'est elle (Acte II

Track length4:22

$1.30

$1.70

About
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About

If anyone may lay claim to the title of prima donna assoluta of the late 20th century, it is surely Jessye Norman. She is one of the great communicators. Whether in the intimate setting of the Wigmore Hall in London, or the huge space of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, she can give each listener the sense that her song is directed straight at them. Jessye Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1945. She studied at Howard University, the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan. In 1968 she won the Munich International Music Competition, and this led to an invitation to sing in Berlin at the Deutsche Oper, where she made her debut as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser. After that her career blossomed and she went on to conquer the world’s greatest opera houses including La Scala in Milan and the Metropolitan in New York. One of her greatest triumphs in New York was in 1982, in Robert Wilson's Great Day in the Morning, and in 1989 she was invited to sing the Marseillaise for the 14 July celebrations in the Place de la Concorde.

The music on these CDs presents a cross-section of Jessye Norman's repertory, in German and French opera, in Lieder and mélodie, in oratorio and even operetta. Since Wagner's Tannhäuser provided Jessye Norman with her first stage role, it is appropriate to begin with two arias from that opera. Senta's ballad from Der fliegende Holländer tells the story of the Flying Dutchman, who is condemned to sail the seas for eternity unless he can find a woman who will remain faithful unto death. The Wesendonck- Lieder were composed by Wagner in 1857–8 as a tribute to Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of his friend Otto; particularly in 'Im Treibhaus' and 'Träume', they look forward to Tristan und Isolde. The three Schubert songs, and the solo from Brahms's German Requiem, bring the German part of the programme to a rapturous conclusion.

From Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann Jessye Norman sings the role of Giulietta, a Venetian courtesan, who ruins the hero, Hoffmann, by urging him to take part in a duel, and then in a symbolic gesture demands from him the ultimate sacrifice – the gift of his reflection. 'The face that launched a thousand ships' – Helen of Troy in La Belle Hélène – is another kind of temptress, and shows the full extent of Norman's comic gifts. In the song cycles by Ravel and Poulenc we glimpse a different side of the artist. La Fraîcheur et le feu was composed in 1950 for the baritone Pierre Bernac, Poulenc's greatest interpreter; in the 1960s, Bernac gave many master-classes covering the whole world of French song, and Jessye Norman was one of his students. The poems set are entitled Vue donne vie (‘Sight gives life'), but Poulenc asked the author, Paul Eluard, to give him a new title for the song-cycle. 'Unis la fraîcheur et le feu' is the opening line of the fifth song: 'Unite the coolness and the fire'. That is exactly what Jessye Norman has always done, and – in Bernac's words – she has done it with 'profound humanity'.

The Very Best of Jessye Norman

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