Jessye Norman (born 15 September 1945) is one of the most admired contemporary opera singers and recitalists. A true dramatic soprano with a majestic stage presence, Norman is associated in particular with the roles of Aïda, Cassandra, Alceste, and Leonora in Fidelio. Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia in a family of amateur musicians; her mother a pianist, her father a singer in a local choir. She attended Charles T. Walker Elementary School, A.R. Johnson Junior High School, and Lucy C. Laney Senior High School, all in downtown Augusta.
Norman received a scholarship to Howard University, graduating in 1967 with a degree in music. The following year, she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She made her operatic debut in 1969 as Elisabeth in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser at the Berlin State Opera, and in subsequent years performed with various German and Italian opera companies. She returned to the US to make her professional concert debut at Lincoln Center in 1973.
Norman made her debut in 1983 at the Metropolitan Opera in Berlioz's Les Troyens in a production which marked the company's 100th anniversary season.
Norman is frequently called on to perform at public events and ceremonies. These have included the 1985 and 1997 U.S. presidential inaugurations, the sixtieth birthday celebration of Queen Elizabeth II, and, perhaps most memorably, the observation of the bicentennial of the French Revolution in Paris's Place de la Concorde, at which she sang La Marseillaise as part of an elaborate pageant orchestrated by avant-garde designer Jean-Paul Goude.
In addition to her operatic performances, Norman gives regular recitals, singing arias, Lieder, and spirituals. She has premiered the song cycle woman.life.song by composer Judith Weir, a work commissioned for her by Carnegie Hall, with texts by Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Norman recently also performed a selection of sacred music of Duke Ellington. She also recorded a jazz album, Jessye Norman Sings Michel Legrand.
The singer's public manner combines an apparent hauteur with flashes of disarming humor, putting her squarely in the venerable operatic tradition of the Diva, to the extent that many credit her as the inspiration for the title character in the 1981 French film Diva. Both her voice and her substantial figure contributed to her nickname among some fans, Just Enormous.
Her hometown, Augusta, Georgia, dedicated a riverfront amphitheater named in her honor in the early 1990s.
