Jessye Norman as Ariadne: "Ein Schönes war"

MET production from 1988, James Levine conducts. Please, see also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ7tl6uHol8.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Richard
• Strauss
• Ariadne
• auf
• Naxos
• Jessye
• Norman
• James
• Levine

[jaason53]

It should be there now.

[FoggyRoad81]

Physically unsuited? Where does it say that Ariadne was anorexic? Strauss did not write this music for a stick figure to sing. She can be large and still tragic and still heartbroken and still mentally wasting away. You claim that it's not right intellectually, seems you are the one being intellectually lazy by having such a tunnel visioned idea of who is "suited" to this role. Thanks btw for contributing to the decline of opera as people chose physicality over great voices in casting.

[Rawrlor]

I believe that many people will agree with me that Miss Norman is indeed the "ideal"Ariadne...

[xbcg9489x]

She is absolutely stunning! i will always love Jessye Norman for her fearless yet tender executions. She is so stinking talented, it blows my mind!

[coryisawake]

Monumental and legendary portrayal. Norman, being a grandiose operatic personality herself, lends itself perfectly well to the winkingly melodramatic plight of the tragic, high-maintenance Primadonna's depiction of Ariadne.

Her acting is almost too convincing here, where "Ariadne" really becomes a sympathetic character and steals the focus from the idea that Jessye Norman is supposed to be portraying the Primadonna character...but how could anyone resist when the music is so opulent?

[Nivri80]

She was in just fine vocal form that night, amazing! This is even better than the Masur recording she did of this opera. Brava Jessye :-)

[MrBluedanube]

I love her!

[2loperadeparis]

Divine !!!!

[panajody]

Jessye Norman is THE Ariadne until the end of time:  her understanding of German surpasses any other (of many) interpretations I have heard. Listen to the way she declares the name Theseus: she captures all the loss, disappointment, and tragedy of the role. Jump to the end of the opera if you want to know what ecstasy is.

[manthasagittarius]

Thin high notes? Are we talking about the same woman? I saw her in this production, and she lifted the roof off with "Es gibt ein Reich." The richest, fullest, purest blast of warm color and tone I have ever heard. Maybe what you are hearing is the way she can pull it in to sheer tenderness hardly to be expected by contrast. She's just one who has it all -- a seemingly unnatural range of pitch, color, dynamic control -- except she lives, so it must be of this earth.

[prolong4291]

I'm not sure that Ms. Norman is a "natural" soprano. The very fact that she she hits those higher notes (though thin, at times) displays her artistry. No fraud at all.

[promptersbox]

Ha!

Foggy road, aptly named. Norman's voice is about as foggy as you can get. Throaty. SMALL on top. Did you hear her live? I did. Many times. She'd open up that mouth as wide as possible and a thin note would be the result. I liked her in lieder. The overacting! The fake British accent!

[FoggyRoad81]

@promptersbox You are a fraud, how dare you. No one sang this music as ethereally beautiful as this woman. Slight intonation issues on the highest notes only. But no one can beat that timbre, that tone that committment, that breath and that truly ecstatic reading. She is a goddess.