Jessye Norman didn’t sing very often at La Scala, but the impact on the few occasions when she appeared was great. The opera house released the following photos from its archives today to remember the soprano, who died yesterday morning in New York following complications from a spinal cord injury she sustained in 2015. She […]
Jessye Norman
Joyce DiDonato joins opera singers from 70 years of Desert Island Discs
As a committed fan of BBC 4’s Desert Island Discs, I am delighted that Joyce DiDonato will be revealing her list of eight recordings, a book and a luxury item that she would take if she was to be cast away on a desert island. Of course, it’s the chat between the music that is the captivating aspect […]
Brava, Jessye! Met Opera Guild’s 80th Luncheon salutes Jessye Norman
On Friday 21 November, the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s 80th Annual Luncheon presents Brava, Jessye! to salute Jessye Norman, who recently wrote about her life in a memoir titled Stand Up Straight and Sing! A perennial highlight of the opera season, the Luncheon will bring together a host of artists and other luminaries to honour the sumptuous-voiced […]
Beppe Menegatti answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Directors’ Edition
Q&A When did you first go to the theatre? To see Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale in Florence on 10 October 1939 for my tenth birthday, with Gino Bechi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Lina Aimaro and the young Giulietta Simionato as Madelena. Why did you want to work in the theatre? In Florence we give out presents for the Epiphany. When I was six […]
Flanders is a Festival! It is… and a lot more.
Flanders, which historically included parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands, is now a lively region of modern-day Belgium of which Brussels is the capital. The Flanders Festival is actually a series of festivals throughout the summer months and beyond. Between June and December there are over 550 concerts in more than 80 cities […]
Restaurants of Ghent, Brussels and Mechelen during Flanders is a Festival
This is not a food blog, but as food has, in some way, influenced every dancer, musician, actor, and for that matter everyone else on the planet, I though I could squeeze it in. Food had a profound effect on rotund Gioachino Rossini, and I’m guessing that Mariinsky ballerina Ulyana Lopatkina is less of a foodie, but […]
Jessye Norman, the mistress of the American Masters, in Flanders
Although the vocal croupier hasn’t been doing Jessye Norman any favours of late, she certainly knows how to make the best of the hand she’s been dealt, and as last night’s concert in Ghent in Belgium demonstrated, she also still has plenty of aces up her sleeve. A perplexed public was quickly won over and […]
Jessye Norman writes her autobiography
Jessye Norman is writing her autobiography which will be about not only her professional life but also about her family and upbringing in Giorgia. The book, “Stand Up and Sing!” is scheduled for release by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in late 2013. I am absolutely thrilled to be able to tell my own story, to celebrate […]
Aretha Franklin is searching for the next opera star
Aretha Franklin, whose pop eye has wandered over to opera from time to time, says she wants to find and develop a budding opera star. Franklin tells NPR that she will sign the singer, or singers, to her record label and give other career assistance. The soul singer doesn’t specify exactly what she’s listening or […]
Jessye Norman belts it out at 65: “wobbly” but “sassy”
Norman’s entrance, from the side of the lawn, gave cause for concern. Singing “Somewhere” from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” Norman sounded wobbly, edgy at the top and patchy in color. She still had volcanic power over and above the miking; even so, one worried how much of her fabled velvety voice remained after largely departing […]
