Jessye Norman Interview (page: 8 / 9) Legendary Opera Soprano	Print Interview

You've performed in at least two one-woman operas where you're the only singer on stage, singing continuously without a break, Erwartung and La voix humaine. In 1989 you performed Erwartung back-to-back with Bluebeard's Castle, where there's only one other singer on stage. How do you prepare for such a taxing and demanding performance?

Jessye Norman: It's kind of perverse of me that I like sort of doing this kind of thing.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Jessye Norman: I still happen to be the only singer that's ever done Erwartung of Schoenberg and La voix humaine of Poulenc on the same evening. La voix humaine is "the human voice." The play is by Jean Cocteau and the music is by Francis Poulenc and these are very demanding and every different characters and very different operas, but I enjoy the challenge. I mean I've also done in one evening -- going back to The Trojans. Having mentioned that Dido, if I had to choose one role, that I would choose that one. But I've also -- because The Trojans is done in two parts -- I've done Cassandra who's the character, the female lead, in the first part, and I've also done Dido on the same night.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. They have a new production of The Trojans at Covent Garden which is wonderful, and some of the singers, I was visiting with them backstage, and one of the singers came up to me and said, "My agent told me he was at the Met when you did both parts. How in the world could you do both parts? I'm exhausted after singing Cassandra." I said, "Well, you have to carbo load the night before. You have to prepare for that the way a marathon runner would prepare to run for 26 miles. Why anybody would want to run for 26 miles is beyond my understanding, but that's something else again! So you have to prepare your body to have enough stored energy upon which you can call, once the day arrives that you've got to do this. So I eat in a completely different manner when preparing for something that's going to happen like that the next day.

[ Key to Success ] Preparation

What do you think of contemporary popular music? Do you hear anything you like in popular music today?

Jessye Norman: Well, I try to understand the popular music of today, because I have lots of young people in my family and I want to be on top of things. So I need them to direct me as to what to listen to, and who's the new hot thing, and all the rest of it. But I do sometimes find that it's too facile for me, that it's too easy. The words don't really mean anything and the words are repeated without their meaning anything more the second time around. There is something rather wonderful and satisfying about listening to a really good text, to listen to really wonderful lyrics. That, for me, is missing in a great deal of popular music these days. People that are working in the classical field are beginning to understand also that writing for the voice in contemporary music is rather different from writing for the trombone or writing for an orchestra, and that one has to understand how the human voice works. It is not the same as another instrument, but it's wonderful that composers are beginning to write really well for the voice.

You participated in several vocal competitions when you were starting out. Now singing contests have become very popular on television programs like The Voice. Can you imagine being a judge on a program like that?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Jessye Norman: I decided years ago that I would never ever work as an adjudicator. As a kid, going around singing in various competitions and various contests and so on, I decided long ago that I would never do that. I've been asked several times, not for that particular thing, but to adjudicate a vocal competition, and I was very flattered to be asked to do this for a jazz organization just a couple of years ago. And I said I won't do that, because I've seen judges make so many mistakes that people that have had potential have been discouraged, because a judge said, "Oh well, you're just not what we're looking for," or "You don't have the right look," or "You don't have the right sound," or whatever, and they've been discouraged. And people who really were kind of the one-pony show have been chosen, and they haven't sort of gone beyond that one-pony show. So I determined very early in my professional life that it would take more than is, I think, available to simple humans, to be able to determine that a person at age 18 is going to still be singing or playing the violin or playing the piano at age 40. Your own experience can't determine that. You're a completely different person from that youngster that is on stage singing the waltz from Puccini's Bohème or something.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

What do you think of the situation where these relatively inexperienced singers become famous overnight, like Susan Boyle after her appearance on a British television program?

Jessye Norman: I didn't see the show, but I've heard her sing since, and it's a wonderful voice, so it's marvelous that she was, as it were, discovered. I wish that there had been the kind of support that one would need in having that kind of exposure at that point in one's life. It all seemed to happen very quickly, and I felt that she did not have enough people around saying, "This is going to be all right. I'm going to take care of this part of it for you. Do not worry. You don't have to talk to everybody that wants to interview and all the rest of it." I felt that it was an unnecessary strain on that beautiful woman. I thought that wasn't quite fair.

What do you know about achievement now that you didn't know when you were younger?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Jessye Norman: I have learned that achievement is ongoing. It's like learning, that you don't -- certainly within my performing life -- you don't get to a point where you can say, "Now I can rest. I've done that, so now I can sit on laurels." That's not the case. There's always someone in the audience who's never heard you before. There's always something new that I'm performing for the first time. I like that. I love that. On a tour, I never sing exactly the same program everywhere. I want the excitement of knowing, "Oh yes. Well, we didn't do that Cole Porter song in that group in Paris, but we're doing it in Lyon," because that keeps things fresh for me. I hope that it also keeps things more interesting for the audience. But certainly, I have learned that one has to go on achieving, that one doesn't get to a level to say, "Okay, now I'm fine, don't have to worry any more." No, no, no. I don't think that happens.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

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