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

What does the American Dream mean to you?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Jessye Norman: The American Dream means to me that people who need the support that can only be given by a government, that they are given what is needed in order to live, not just to survive but to thrive. I am so exhausted from hearing this business about pulling one's self up by one's bootstraps. There are people in our country that are not wearing boots. And that not to understand that it is the responsibility of a society to look out for the least of us is, for me, a very wrong way of looking at life and living. The American Dream is realized only when we come to the point of understanding, when we see a person that is not doing very well in life, if we can understand that "there (but for) the grace of God go I," and that it is our responsibility to lend a hand, a hand up. People don't want a handout, they want a hand up. And the American Dream, to me, is understanding and participating in that. Not achieving something on one's own and letting that be all that happens in one's life, but to understand sometimes you need to reach back. Sometimes you've got to reach on the side and say, "Hey, come along. Don't be sad. This is going to work out. You'll never walk alone."

[ Key to Success ] The American Dream

Speaking of "You'll Never Walk Alone," you've sung that at a number of events recently.

Jessye Norman: I'm in Washington because of the 19th International AIDS Conference, at which I had the pleasure of singing, and to make a little speech about the wonderful people who give their time, their emotional support, their incredible scientific minds, working towards a cure -- or certainly at least a vaccine -- for AIDS after all these years. I told them that Rodgers and Hammerstein actually created an anthem for them long ago in Carousel when he wrote what they've been saying for 30 years to people involved and affected by AIDS, "You'll never walk alone." So I was very pleased to be able to sing that last night.

You've been very active in AIDS-related causes for many years. How did that begin?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Jessye Norman: It was such a mystery, of course, for everybody -- when the disease first appeared. And being in the performing arts, it turned out that a lot of my friends and colleagues were affected first. It was a complete mystery as to what it was, how it was passed on and all the rest of that. In a very short period I lost a lot of people -- like a lot of us -- a lot of friends, and was very confused by this, and decided whatever it is, we have to work towards finding out what it is, and how it is transmitted, and how it can be cured. So I started working with various organizations, principally in New York City an organization called Balm In Gilead, run by the very dynamic Pernessa Seele. They relocated to Richmond, Virginia about five years ago and they're still very, very active. One of the things that we did was to put on a concert at the Riverside Church in about 1997, I think it was, our first one. I arranged it in the way that a Baptist Church in the South would organize a service, so that we had the choir to process in, singing a spiritual, and then we had the scripture, and Whoopi Goldberg was our preacher, and our guest in the audience happened to be Elton John. So I was able to have Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou and Anna Deavere Smith and Bill T. Jones and Max Roach at the time, all of these people sort of as a member of the congregation who just happened to be there and sort of wanted to come and sort of praise the Lord in the name of looking for a cure for AIDS.

In 1997, did you think that we would have a cure by now?

Jessye Norman: Absolutely. Already -- 15 years ago at the time of this first performance -- the scientists were telling us that in about 10 years' time it could be that there would be a vaccine. But, of course, we know that didn't happen. Everybody is still working furiously to find out what can be done. But a lot of progress has been made, in that this mother-to-child transference is now a thing of the past in the United States, and is fast becoming a thing of the past all over the world. And as was mentioned last night, by 2015 this part of the AIDS crisis should be over, and that is really very encouraging. There is a new method of determining whether or not you happen to be HIV positive, that one can do at home, that you don't have to even use a number when it's, of course, wanting to keep one's medical information private. But that it is possible to do these tests at home, and to find out for yourself, in the company, hopefully, of somebody that's going to be with you. Because it can be devastating, I'm sure, to find out this news on one's own. But to be able to do it in the privacy of one's own home is a great step forward, and that's just sort of in the last month or so that that's come to the fore.

What advice or encouragement would you give to the children in your life? What would you want to leave behind as your verbal footprint?

Jessye Norman: As my verbal footprint? I would say that this time on earth is to be lived fully, to be enjoyed, to be of service to somebody else, not just one's self, and that to live fully should be the goal.

This will be our last question. What is creativity and where does it come from?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Jessye Norman: I love to quote Einstein, when he actually said that, for him, the gift of fantasy, the act of creativity in his life -- the brilliant life of this brilliant man -- that the act of fantasy, creativity, had meant more to him in his life than the ability for absorbing knowledge. Can you imagine that? From Einstein? That the gift of going into one's own mind and thinking of something, thinking that there could be something called the Internet that could connect people all over the world through a little machine that is on your desk, or on your lap or nowadays in your handbag. From where does it come? It comes from deeply inside of us. It comes from that place that is not trying to do anything except live. It isn't thinking about whether or not this is a good idea, whether or not anybody else is going to think this is good, whether it's a workable idea. It is simply there. And some people have the courage to go with it. I had the privilege of seeing Bill Gates receive an award last night and had a chance to chat to him just a moment. When I think of my friends that were in California at the time that there was something in Bill Gates's garage that he wanted people to see, and that he thought was going to be something very interesting, and there were people that were smart enough to say, "Okay, I'll go with you," and other people that said, "Don't be so silly," that he kept going anyway. And look where it has taken us. And people working in this field in technology tell us we are only at the beginning.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

Imagination. How has it worked in your world?

Jessye Norman: It works in my world by allowing me to step outside of the box, to work with Bill T. Jones. When we're doing a performance, and we're working on steps and so on, and Bill says, "It's going to be 17 to the right, and then you're going to step back with your right foot 11 times, and then you're going to move over here on a count of three," and I say to Bill, "Why can't we have numbers that are even?" And he says, "Why? If you can count to ten, you can count to 11." I think that creativity means going with whatever is in your mind that is going to make your life more interesting and fun, whether it's your personal life or your professional life. With everything that is going on, with all of the need and the suffering in the world, that we find time to have a good time. This is a very short existence that we have on this earth.

Thank you. That was amazing.

Jessye Norman: Well, you're very kind.

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