Jessye Norman - A Portrait - Isoldes Liebestod (Wagner)

[achillezthewarrior]

amazingly beautiful song!!!

[TubaSmaug]

EEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR

THE ENDING IS THE BEST

[TubaSmaug]

@TubaSmaug overreaction it is a beautiful rec.

maybe my favorite...

thanks

[CastaDiva181]

i love you Jessye...your voice is a God's gift <3

[613Yonatan]

Marvelous... Simply marvelous...

[sh24jame]

Devine and Transcendental.

No other words to describe.

[EROSGODOFGAYS]

Stunning performance!

[foropera]

Is it the Philips studio from 1975 which is post sync?

[bendabledoll]

It amazes me how she can just glide as she sings, this is perhaps most prominent at sanft entweht, though she constantly reinvents this with delicacy. Its rare to have a dramatic soprano who is so smooth and whole. The challenges of such work can change any artist's sound to shrill, a showman or hasty -never her. Yet for all this perfection it is not lacking in power, its the opposite, she lifts everything without effort. There's a purity to her sound, something ancient runs through this woman.

[Troskyi]

i am so choked that the last three goddamn bars of the liebestod are missing from this video. i was just sitting here with my mouth gaping wide open with my my hands outstretched gestulating like a moron. what an enormous tease.

[PaterEcstaticus888]

Awesome.

[PEPEDEBARRO]

What a wonderful piece of a human being! Jessye, we loooooooove you!

[wabrac]

She is the greatest!

[Maralegar2009]

OMG STOP CUT BEFORE THE END !

[Maralegar2009]

Just enormous

[silentoperasinger]

Her voice is as smooth as silk. Its a shame that she no longer performs in opera.

[dianerhys]

JessyeNorman VEVO has this without being prematurely cut off at the end.

[quitomachado]

Magnífica. Perfeita. Magia musical.

[P1B1U1H1]

Just gorgeous.

[paulprocopolis]

Totally riveting both vocally and artistically. Norman's extraordinary emotional and colouristic range draws every last drop of meaning out of this ultra-Romantic music. Listening to this is almost akin to a religious experience - which may be what Wagner intended given the exalted status he accorded to love-in-death. Many thanks for a great video!

[nucisfan17]

ah! magic!

[rainboots23]

I KNOW!!!!! I put the DVD on my Netflix list -- I hope it gets here soon so I can play that last note! Jeez! Amazing rendition. I love Jessye.

[filmguychris]

my god, the video cuts out on the final chord! i was in heaven at that moment. it was such a rude shock when it cut out... but im gonna run out and buy this dvd as soon as i can. wow

[cesmemael]

Ah, I LOVE her!!!

[PatateRoussoiste]

What a woman ! 

[16thCenturyArt]

I am an very fond on Birgit Nilson' standard when it come to Wagner, but I have to say that Ms Jessye Norman rendtion of this piece is , too, very good.

[IzzyJiagu]

wow, such control! I wish I could sing like this!

[robkamanda]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... Beautiful.....Beautiful...... Beautiful.......

[MrMglgeo]

É demais!

[MrMglgeo]

Luxo artístico: Tudo isso junto ( música, Voz, cena, figurino, teatro, perfórmances...

É demais!

[ArchiducDeBelgrade]

Greatest opera composer (for most of music experts)and one of the greatest opera singers.. Wagner is difficult to perform, not just for singers but for all orchestra, conductor, , scenography and all.. in some opera houses its impossible to implement Wagners operas.

[jdubbari]

I'm sure I died and went to heaven.

[AtheneNikephoros]

@jdubbari If death were like this, I'm pretty sure that a lot of people wouldn't be afraid of it anymore.

[FINalFANTAsyKIDDO]

the last few minutes of this song was played in the 1990's version of Romeo and Juliet. Its definitely a beautiful piece.

[MissJezebel61]

I'm absolutely no Wagner expert...but this is just sublime!!

,My grandmother was a semi professional opera singer+still had an amazing voice until she died aged 87 in 1979... she would have loved this performance.I remember being mesmerised by her+my great aunt as a child ,..lovely memory... for my grandmother Lilas Merrifield

[paulostroff99]

Lovely singing. TY.

[parzifal40]

Wagner's music was written by the hand of a god.....Wagner. Jacques Barzun of Columbia University once wrote that Wagner was better than 500 Beethovens and 100 Shakespeares....high praise coming from such an esteemed scholar as Dr. Barzun.....Wagner's music does touch the soul of all who listen.

[MiddleDeeping]

O my stars. I'm in shock. I've always thought Jessye Norman was, all things considered, the greatest female opera (hard to know what to call her because her range spans contralto to high dramatic soprano) interpreter ever, but this blows me away. She is also stunningly beautiful, surpassingly decent person, a devout Christian. If you've never heard her "Spirituals" concert w/Kathleen Battle, you've missed something wonderful.

[MrGunterguerrero]

Wagner's Liebestod...a masterpiece of the romanticism, and Jessye...a goddess !

[thewagnerworld]

la tengo en el RING del MET de 1992 y está increíble también

[noitedeluaamor]

wowwww como descrever algo assim?

[georgerannie]

Jessye is so very wonderful as this tape proves,

[SansSaleModulable]

does she do that aria in one breath....

[violinist1990]

This piece takes my breath away, I watch this religiously and the effect of it is stronger each time I listen to it. How could something be so beautiful!

[skimask777]

Beautiful!

The same spirit that moved upon Wagner to write this music is seen moving inside Jessye Norman as delivers this performance of Liebestod.

[garfreed]

Jessye Norman transforms everything she sings. The sublime becomes more sublime!

[ketillflatnefur]

this a so kitschy - she has a beautfiul voice- always had - and it wonderful to listen to - but she is pantomiming how she feels the music. is that an interpretation? she doesn't seem to know the words intimately enough to include them in her perforamance and project them with feeling - it means nothing to here to say senseless things.. sind es Wolgen? in des Welt? ertrinschen? it is jarring and distracts when i try to listen with invovlement.

[khatun1000]

Jessye, you are the best!

[violinist1990]

5:02 makes me wanna ball...this is incredibly beautiful, so beautiful. This is why I love music so much. *sigh*

[zurriussII]

I feel fire deep in Isolde's soul, burning and birthing her again in eternity...

[alezander666]

@zurriussII HOW COULD THAT SCOUNDREL WAGNER REACH INSIDE OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US,make us weap in ecstacy,cry in the highest form.stravinsky whom i love once said,"music cannot represent emotions",how mad,he too makes me shiver in visions,silly of him.

[khatun1000]

@zurriussII Yes, fire is the exact word for it!

[Ccomaffayod]

Incredibly beautiful. Wagner was brilliant, and Jessye Norman's voice is heartbreakingly wonderful.

[Owenbob]

@Ccomaffayod No one can sing this better than Jessye.

[SusieQT2]

Written by the hand of god,..yes!

[Theodorakis4]

ich finde es schlimm, dass sie mit der wunderbaren Karajan-Einspielung einen solchen Unfug treibt....Peinlich !

[Saudave]

@Theodorakis4 Sie hat zwar in ferner Vergangenheit in einer Produktion von Karajan mitbewirkt, aber hier handelt sich um ein Stück aus ihrem Album, an dem sie zusammen mit dem deutschen Dirigent: Klaus Tennstedt gearbeitet hat. Es regt mich auf, dass Du nicht genug informiert bist und trotzdem so eine Kritik vorbringst...

[Theodorakis4]

@Saudave ...Und mich regt es auf, dass manche Leute offenbar keine Ohren am Kopf haben, aber hier irgendwelches Zeug hinschreiben. Dies ist zu 100% der Live-Mitschnitt mit Karajan und den Wiener Philharmonikern von 1987. Wenn Du es nicht glauben willst, vergleiche die Aufnahmen. Dass Frau Norman auf zwei Aufnahmen exakt die gleichen Fehler macht (wie am Schluss "ertrinschen", statt "ertrinken") wird ja wohl niemand ernsthaft behaupten.

Also: Zuhören !

[Saudave]

@Theodorakis4 Ok! Jetzt weiß ich Bescheid. Tut mir leid, dass ich in meiner Kritik voreilig gewesen bin.

[Jasminashvili]

Сцена смерти Изольды захватывает дух, и мурашки бегут по всему телу. Музыка волшебная, магическая, она передает все тончайшие оттенки чувств и переживаний героини. Гениальнооооо!

[Omunene]

Does anyone else feel, as I do, that in some treatments of this piece Isolde dies at the end of the word 'lust,' while in other treatments she dies at the end of the orchestration? I think Jessye does an incredible job with this, but I sometimes wish that in concert performances she'd stretch 'lust' out just a little longer...

[Ocean92Soul]

The video is very beautiful; I can't describe with words Wagner's music, it seem like it's written by the hand of god. Norman's voice...woooow...

[alezander666]

@Ocean92Soul OH WAGNER,HOW HE REACHES INTO OUR HEARTS AND GRABS US.

[michael72401]

@Ocean92Soul I agree - it's just sooo powerful and holds within it the determination of the human spirit - wonder why he was an anti-semite

[paulostroff99]

@michael72401 -Professional jealousy of people like Meyerbeer who helped him enormously in getting his start-only later to be dissed by this tyrant of a man.Toscanini said to him-Herr Wagner,as a musician I take my hat off to you,but as a man-I put it back on twice.

[Scarlatti2007]

God, I was just about to orgasm and you cut me off and gave me blue balls!

[gojewla]

lol. Why is the resolution cut off?

[TheLanilsson]

Beatiful but no Nilsson...she has too much vibrato in many phrases that really don't fit in here....this aria needs to be like a river that just keeps floating....it feels like she's forcing some notes...over and all, a really nice performance

[violmaster94]

I would have to disagree. Isolde is making some huge decisions in this 6:36 minute phrase. Vibrato is used as a accelerator of intensity in my opinion, so acutually in my opinion she is emphasizing the correct words and vowels perfectly. Thats just my opinion.

[bachlover99]

Oh the agony unresolved..........why why why...........Jessye is as always wonderful, but for this I love Brigit more.

[concertobub]

so right PrinsTan - D sharp and E flat are not the same note - and I'll repeat that I love anything in it with a D sharp/E flat, in much the same way that I like apples/oranges.

[PrinsTan]

hahaha

now I'm completely lost

I'm not a fruit expert but i'm pretty sure that analogy could fit somehow

we'll just have to cancel the grapefruit's performance (personally i don't care much for Weber so it's ok)

[ezayi]

you´re just repeating what some stupid intellectual said. It is the same note.... PERIOD!

[concertobub]

yes, give us the final chord ;-) - I have perfect pitch and anything with a D sharp/E flat in it is sublime to me - the whole Liebestod satisfies all sorts and conditions for me. But thanks for the video texmex03030 - we love it and love Jessye Norman's interpretation.

[PrinsTan]

D sharp and E flat are not the same note

On the piano they are. But technically, they are not.

[tacetviola]

So right. They are not the same not and will never be the same note. Only on that overly tempered dull ivory piece of shit the piano.

[ezayi]

I said it before and I said now... you are probably repeating what a stupid intellectual said before. It is the same note and basta... PERIOD!

[davidosirisk]

To cut the final chord! In Tristan and Isolde of all things! Thatt ultimate resolving chord is literally the whole point of both the song and of the whole opera.

And yes, Jessye Norman is a tremendous Wagnerian soprano.

[brisw28]

Blasphemy!!! You're right, it is the whole point of the opera.

[magdluke]

ARGH!!! Why does this cut before the final chord?!?!?!

[izasgarze]

vaya voz prodigiosa!!

[FINalFANTAsyKIDDO]

i saw this on my public broadcasting station (late night classical station) and i was amazed by this version. its so soulful yet she is very delicate with each word. ^^ shes a very good singer.

[twilightttluver]

Wow! I'm speechless!

[2111velvet]

......nicht von dieser Welt....überirdisch....

Mein Gott, was für eine Stimme!!!!!!!!! für diese

TRAUMMUSIK....

[83ayan]

Tausend Soprane, aber diese Stimme ist für mich das Grösste.

Und doch????

Ist Isolde das Beste?

Hatte das Glück, Catarina Ligenza zu hören.

Kaum einer kennt sie. Für mich:

Reines Glück.

[2111velvet]

Ja, wie schön das es so etwas gibt.

Nicht nur die großen Namen zählen.

Musik soll glücklich machen, egal wie es ihr

gelingt.

[LMBS7]

WONDERFUL!!!!

[Sagitere]

Ce passage de Richard WAGNER est trés trés émouvant!!!!

[MademoiselleGore]

I would give ANYTHING to sound like her!

:(

[sagazflausino]

Sem comentários!!! Maravilhosa!!!!! Jessy Norman cantando Wagner é tudo de bom. Só não tente cantar Purcell, pelo amor de Deus!

[Vinibach]

Pura Arte.

[hlbessinger]

Wonderful...

I can only hope my voice developes into such a beautiful, smooth, dramatic instrument.

[yongsarah]

all my most favourite, liebestod and jessye norman

[strudal01]

WOW! I think I've just died and gone to heaven. It can't get any better than this.

[FernandoBalino]

She is FANTASTIC!

[cellomikel29]

OH NO THE LAST CHORD IS GONE!!!!! but still amazing performance, i LOVE jessye norman!

[dalupo1]

WHY DID THEY CUT OFF THE END?????

[mauvetys]

Superb!

[Ngelic]

Jesseye Norman has a beautiful God-given instrument... thank you so much for this clip.

[randymanswell]

Wow indeed! Utterly unbelievable- she is a spirit medium! So strong in her dramatic intentions and artistic directions. I heart Jessye!

[agabusdawatchman]

Wow...this is utterly beautiful.

[DieterBremen]

Was für eine wundervolle Stimme und welch grandiose Inszenierung...

[cashmerequeen]

So beautiful classical music can be. Its wonderful to see and hear. Art meets Music. Thank you for sharing this great Clips in such good quality with us. Most kind.