One More Giant Gone

Jessye Norman, a singer majestic in every sense, has died, at what seems to us the still too young age of seventy-four.

Some of us remember her performance in Vancouver during Expo 86. She sang, of course, the Strauss "Four Last Songs," with which she will always be identified, but she also gave us a few cabaret numbers, adopting a wickedly witty Dietrich accent.

Among the scores of recordings she made--and for which she was awarded five Grammys--was a collection of spirituals, in duets with Kathleen Battle. No two singers could be more unlike, but it worked. And in 1997, she recorded a number of Michel Legrand songs--"The Summer Knows,""I Was Born in Love with You," "What are You doing the Rest of Your Life?" She had a knowledgeable appreciation of jazz, and while she wasn't a jazz singer herself, she was entirely at home with Legrand at piano, Ron Carter on bass and Grady Tate on drums.

Perhaps the most memorable image of Jessye Norman came on Bastille Day in 1989, the two hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution. She appeared draped in the French flag and sang "La Marseillaise."

We like to think of her entering heaven in the same triumphant way.


Footnote: One of the songs on the Jessye Norman-Michel Legrand album is "Dis-Moi" ("Tell Me"). The lyrics are by Francoise Sagan, remembered as the 18-year-old author of "Bonjour Tristesse."