Prelude and "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde 3/3

[kth8mitch]

Warning: Don't watch this video for more than 4 hours at a stretch.... You can easily toast your lieber

[ruizdechavez]

Jessye Norman nos muestra todo su encanto con su excelsa vos en su magnífica interpretación de la muerte de Isolda. Tal vez, tal vez, la mejor Isolda que hayamos oído.

[sirjuandabicho]

Magnífica interpretación, muchas gracias por compartirla.

[Conoror536]

@arnoldgiordani While I would never argue with her stamina, vocal capabilities, and emotive expressionism, I respectfully disagree mainly because I simply find Kirsten Flagstad's vocal acrobatics (especially in the sublime "pre-climax" build-up) more impressive. There are numerous videos of sopranos able to sing at a 7-9 minute pace (although this one here is quite good), but there are very few performances that are around 6 minutes because quick agility AND hugeness are so rare to have.

[Rockykratter]

haha so happy at 3:08.

[Conoror536]

Lovely sound, but as always, Norman tends to sing these special pieces rather slowly - another notable example would be Strauss's Four Last Songs.

[arnoldogiordani]

@Conoror536 She was one of the few people who could sustain that volume of seamless, voluptuous, rapturous sound for that length of time and intensity. There are other ways to sing "these special pieces"; but, God, what a way she had!

[craigwalters]

So moving! That is absolutely wonderful.

[starwarsjunkie7777]

My GOD people, stand up for her!!! I'm quite surprised she wasn't given a standing ovation.

[starwarsjunkie7777]

Lol, I just got chills in the first few seconds. Man, Wagner is a genius, and thanks to a woman like this, we can understand his genius even more.

[TimeStrider]

What is it about this woman's voice that brings tears to my eyes?

[JackSafferyRowe]

Musical perfection

[ledormant]

When Jessye was to sing Isolde with karajan at a rehearsal, he told her not to sing but sit and listen to the orchestra. She didn't sing that day !! karajan a great conductor?

[MrSpallie]

i hope you all take the time to find the von karajan version listen and feel the synergy between the orchestra and jessye norman its magic

[MrSpallie]

i hope you all take the time to find the von karajan version listen and feel the synergy between the orchestra and jessye norman its magic

[GraniteQuarrier]

What a performance. thanks for the upload! She might be an X-men.

[erwartung1]

Greatest soprano superbous voice!

[erwartung1]

Superbous dominium of the voice, greatest!, Thanks!

[marieantionette]

Shes amazing...that dress makes her look like those arent her arms...but shes fricken amazing...

[ahava77]

Jessye is a beast!! :) Amazing!!

[mcallen83]

She has an impressive facial bone structure. Quite a beautiful face.

[TheEggman51]

From 4:48 to 4:58 ---every ounce of her is going into her delivery. She is the greatest!!!

[Bigman240]

What a MOUTH!

[SnoozeButton57]

Wagner lived his music. His marriage with young Cosima and the subsequent Masterpiece she inspired is a marvel to any devoted student of Grandeur.

[rumpwrestler]

If she's so great, why is she continuously singing FLAT?

[parzifal40]

There is simply no word in any language that can adequately describe the beauty and power of this performance. Thank you R. Wagner and J. Norman for an experience that is truly heavenly.

[wTrevorh]

Excellent! Jessye Norman is one courageous woman!

[gustavoanmosura]

absolutamente sublime.....gracias

[henkjanklaas]

I think this is supposed to be sung by an exhausted Isolde who has just spent 5 hours singing Wagner on stage (and an exhausted audience) and to sound like an intimate last word to her 'freunde' who are present, with one last outburst of ecstasy at 6:12. A fresh Jessye Norman is a bit to powerful to me for this one. But perhaps the exhausted Isoldes rush the tempo because they long for the ending while Norman has the patience to take the tempo this slow and beautiful because of her energy...

[Schamschi]

@henkjanklaas Or maybe Zubin Mehta was just stoned... There is a recording with Jessye Norman and Karajan here on Youtube, and it is faster than this one.

[zurriussII]

Such a huge mouth is quite suitable for such a huge mouth to spread all the passionate and painful beauty of Jessye Norman's enormous voice.

[masaleskovac]

a voice so rich.. this is one of the most demanding pieces, deep and complex emotions.. this woman is really a master, she really holds it all

[alezander666]

oh,OH,HOW THOSE PEOPLE IN MUNICH HEARING THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME.i love hindemith,strauss,messiaen,bar­tok,stravinsky,WHAT CAN I SAY OF WAGNER,A MAN TRULY IN THE REALM OF THE ANGELS,WHAT ELSE WOULD IT BE

[brolobear]

I remembered this broadcast and, in my mind, it is legendary. No performance i've ever heard matches this...and Norman went somewhere else during it...took her time to come back after it was over...amazing to watch.

[GenHansKammler]

Das ist eine Beleidigung für Richard Wagner.

Typisch für diese Juden!

[panajody]

Bist Du von Sinne?????

[Adonis251]

Goddess!!!

[girmo2003]

I cannot even deal with how amazing this is.

[ledormant]

How deeply moving !! How beautiful ! Godesses exist !

[ledormant]

God is a black woman.

[301250]

Awesome, singing taken to the heights of exctasy.

[visualtourist]

oh...my...GOD. everything she does, as far as i've seen, is amazing. this made me cry--i haven't been this touched since i saw natalie dessay do lucia, and that was live. god, jessye norman is amazing. she's so gorgeous, and so committed a performer, and her voice is SO beautiful. thank you, posting person who posted this.

[gigabowserscoltick]

exelente aunque la versionde Karjan es la mejor con la filarmonica de berlin

[Lindow]

I'm really surprised by all of you finding this so great because to me it semms mostly mannered and I didn't catch one moment in which she truly surrendered herself to the music and allowed herself to fly.

[rumpwrestler]

Norman is great, but nothing TOPS the Nilsson. I heard her live as Isolde, Bayreuth, Vienna, San Francisco, the MET....from the beginning of her Wagner career to its end. SHE is the Isolde.

[Musliston]

Hm...I adore the Karajan version, this version is somewhat slow for me and she slides very much.

[operamac]

which is funny, because in so many things Karajan's tempos were excruciatingly slow.

[nailycai]

Jessye is a Goddess. I'm in love with Karajan's version, but this does highlight Norman's voice in such a gorgeous way.

[jillby3000]

Almost impossible to knock Nilsson off the top, this version just might.

[TheWisemonkey8]

Gosh I need to take a good 10-15 minutes to recover each time I watch this. Thank you so much.

[htshoward]

Jessye is leading the show here, not sure what Mehta is doing. In the Karajan version, HE leads.

[TheWisemonkey8]

I have a feeling even Meta is as amazed by Jessye in this performance as we are :). Kind and warm regards my friend in music.

[llcooljay1887]

If Ms. Norman didn't lead we would've never experienced this.... breathtaking moment in music history. The tempo is perfect. The prelude was too fast, so I'm glad Jessye could slow the aria down.

Just amazing. I cried.... twice.

[htshoward]

I agree with you. I cannot tolerate when conductor's rush this. I once heard James Levine conduct the prelude and Liebestod, and it was as if the music was a race to the finish line. Horrible. Jessye is phenomenal.

[Iareto]

This is so unbelievably emotional. I had pegged myself as a non-fan of her's, but this has changed my mind. Anyone who can FEEL (and make the audience feel) like this, deserves only the highest praise. BRAVA!!

[htshoward]

Agreed

[2111velvet]

Ihre Isolde ist genial.

[robertofiore]

It is really bad directed by Metha...the sound of orchestra il like opposite from the Wagner think of orchestra...sure it is an interpretation, but, how much far from the beauty of this work...

Normann is the best singer that can sing this...

Please listen to Karajn and Normann version...is another world...

[htshoward]

I agree that the Karajan version with her is better, but she does seem more "in the moment and taken away" when singing it here for some reason.

[latinaloveruk]

We all have our favourite versions and this isn't one of mine. Leaden... I prefer Verrett. I'm not interested in your stupid thumbs op or down. This is my personal opinion, get over it.

[brisw28]

Absolutely amazing. When the resolution occurs, her resonance, it is as if all sorrows have left her. An amazing moment caused by Norman and Wagner.

[artbowl123]

In 1989 she was the best Isolde's Liebestod but she never had the high notes for strenuous narration of the First Act, she never recorded it and now is too late.....

[raycanto76]

This is Jessye Norman at her best....i cannot wait til she records the entire role of Isolde.

[paddaman1]

You are going to wait very long, she wont record it now, way too late.

[samuelus12]

I remember seeing this great soprano on PBS, and I immediately knew she was the greatest living soprano in my lifetime.

[ImTreibhaus]

1. Mildly and gently,

how he smiles,

how the eye

he opens sweetly ---

Do you see it, friends?

[ImTreibhaus]

2. Don't you see it? Brighter and brighter how he shines, illuminated by stars rises high? Don't you see it? How his heart boldly swells, fully and nobly wells in his breast? How from his lips delightfully, mildly, sweet breath softly wafts --- Friends! Look! Don't you feel and see it?

[ImTreibhaus]

3. Do I alone hear this melody, which wonderfully and softly, lamenting delight, telling it all, mildly reconciling sounds out of him, invades me, swings upwards, sweetly resonating rings around me? Sounding more clearly, wafting around me --- Are these waves of soft airs?

[ImTreibhaus]

4. Are these billows

of delightful fragrances?

How they swell,

how they sough around me,

shall I breathe,

Shall I listen?

Shall I drink,

immerse?

Sweetly in fragrances

melt away?

[ImTreibhaus]

5. In the billowing torrent,

in the resonating sound,

---in the wafting Universe

of the World-Breath

drown,

be engulfed ---

unconscious ---

supreme delight!

*go on put the translation in the more info box :]*

Thanks for this...

[blairinnyc]

This is one of my all time favorite performances by Jessye. She is without equal here.

[htshoward]

I just watched it again, and I am overtaken with emotion. One of her most brilliant performances. Brava, Jessye, and Bravo Maestro Mehta!!!

[htshoward]

I love this DIVINELY SLOW tempo....Brava!

[ApolloAnne]

Makes me have goosebumps how ever many times I listen to it

[jackylen57]

Jessye Norman chante merveilleusement Wagner.

Merci

[paulatwe]

Virtuoso as ever, but STERILE. No soul

she has done SO much better. NO rating.

[newhotmailit]

LUV HER!!!

[svoboda85]

speechless!

[vojta80]

I love and always loved Jessye....she is so motivating in everything what she did....and this is just maybe " Heaven"?!

[foropera]

It's obviously magnificent, unique. But something is exhausting in this performance, as it is the slowest tempo ever taken. She is able to do it, and to grow the phrases until the end, incredibly as it is, but it's as if it was disproportionate, even to this aria. I hope this doesn't seem petty to say so facing this marvel...

[karolgostynski]

you're abolutely right. one can truly (ie. with subtle perception) appreciate beauty when one is not blindly (ie. without awerenss and insight) worshipful - which doesn't negate being wildly passionate about it!!)

[DaddyofT]

Actually, given past performances from Bernstein to Barenboim to Kleiber, its not that slow. She sings with incredible power, in front of the orchestra so its more like an life aria than her death, much different than when Isolde sings from stage behind orch. What is disappointing is the NYPhil. entrances are often off, the English horn is more nasal than sinusitis and they look bored. Mehta also doesnt give much except emotion. I find Jordans prelude on YT more interesting.

[papageno88]

Höchste Lust indeed.

[oboist24]

i hope this is what heaven's like all the time!

[svoboda85]

moves me to tears

[JessyeNormanFan]

Thank you so much for this post. I have never heard this aria sung with so much control and such beauty. I always knew Jessye was the greatest and the best.

[TreblesBasses]

GREAT JESSYE!

[Verdibari1987]

This is truly the most touching performance I have ever seen. Miss Norman is an example to every young opera singer on what this art form is all about. Her character development in just a recital setting is just breathtaking. What a complete artist. I agree whole heartidly with metrisch's comment! Thank you so much for posting! BRAVA!

[darnmat]

This is the most indulgent performance of Liebestod compared to other Jessye Norma's interpretation... Indulgent in a good way.... There was a powerful sense of drama and clarity...

[htshoward]

Yes, I agree.  I am still shivering from the way she was so transported into that other realm by the end of this aria. I have long loved her Liebestod with Karajan, but this brought a new clarity, as you stated.

[metrisch]

After this glorious music there remains only one thing to do for me tonight: shut down the computer and try to retain some of the emotions it caused. Thank you Jessye Norman, thank you Zubin Mehta, thank you Richard Wagner.

Aand thank you gr8holio for this video.

[bygojohn]

the Liebestod is a complete transfiguration and Ms. Norman is completely in that zone where she has changed! BRAVA!

[ILikeOpera]

Amazing, stunning, fabulous, transcending is Ms. Jessye Norman

[ApolloAnne]

Fantastic. Haven't heard this for so long. Thanks so much.

[Liwah]

Why did you delete my comments on here? I could have sworn I posted some a day or two ago and there was NOTHING offensive about it.

[gr8holio]

It never crossed my mind to delete anyone's comment.  You posted your comment on my profile. In fact, I thanked you for your nice words by posting a comment on your profile.

[Liwah]

I could have sworn I also posted two comments on here. Must be a youtube bug.

Thanks again for posting the videos.

[belcunto]

@Liwah so are the days of our lives

[belcunto]

@Liwah oh no, it was very very offensive!!

[Liwah]

@belcunto LOL. What a queen.

[belcunto]

@Liwah like sands through the hour glass!

[grenouilleGG]

Thrice happy.  Thanks again!

[primobasso]

Absolutely stunning! Thanks for posting!