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Jessye Norman - Singer (1987)
Character: Herself
This long-form portrait of an iconic opera star looks behind the voice to her youth in the segregated American South
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Toni Morrison Remembers (2015)
Character: Self
Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison is America's first lady of literature. Her books encompass black American history but live and breathe in the present, rich in vivid characters, haunted by ghosts. Born poor in Ohio in 1931, she now lives in New York. She tells Alan Yentob how her father hated whites so much he wouldn't let them in the house. Her masterpiece, Beloved, shows the horrors of slavery perhaps better than any other artwork. She talks as she writes - with warmth and wit. Contributors include Angela Davis (whose biography she edited) and singer Jessye Norman.
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Dialogues des Carmélites (1987)
Character: N/A
In this legendary production, director John Dexter and designer David Reppa brilliantly captured the stark drama of Poulenc’s only full-length opera, which tells the story of a group of nuns caught in the maelstrom of the French Revolution. Maria Ewing is Blanche de la Force, an aristocratic novice who flees her convent when it is desecrated, only to return and join her fellow nuns as they are led to their execution. The legendary Régine Crespin, in her final Met appearance, is Madame de Croissy, the prioress whose agonizing death haunts Blanche. Jessye Norman sings Mother Lidoine, the new prioress, and Florence Quivar is the comforting Mother Marie. French maestro Manuel Rosenthal conducts.
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The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert (1988)
Character: Self
There was a time when the biggest names in pop music believed they could change the world for the better. Faced with the intolerance and excesses of the established authorities, music celebrities decided to use their prestige to draw attention to the problems that less favoured people in the world faced. Wembley Stadium, London, 1988: thousands of English people fill one of the most famous football arenas in the world to celebrate an unforgettable pop music festival, with a lofty goal above entertainment - the celebration of the seventieth birthday of African leader Nelson Mandela.
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Verdi: Requiem (1982)
Character: Self - Mezzo-soprano
Live performance of Verdi's Missa da Requiem at the Edinburgh Festival in 1982. An all-star quartet of soloists under the baton of Claudio Abbado, recorded in high definition audio.
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Symphony for the Spire (1992)
Character: N/A
An impressive lineup of international stars puts on a spectacular "Symphony for the Spire" to kick off the world-famous Salisbury Arts Festival in 1991, held on the Salisbury Cathedral's West Green. Segments feature individual performances by Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, American soprano Jessye Norman and cellist Ofra Harnoy, as well as a special staging of Shakespeare's "Henry V" starring Kenneth Branagh and Charlton Heston.
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Jessye Norman Sings Carmen (1990)
Character: Herself
Jessye Norman Sings Carmen is a gripping vérité study of the famous dramatic soprano’s approach to mastering Bizet’s heroine in recording sessions with Seiji Ozawa and the Orchestre National de France. Musical segments include performances of three arias and the great duets between Carmen and Don José
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Ozawa (1985)
Character: Self
This intimate portrait of the legendary conductor Seiji Ozawa focuses on the Japanese master and teacher's career, his advocacy of modern composers and the behind-the-scenes world of the symphony orchestra.
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The Magic of Spirituals (2023)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Glimpse behind the curtain at opera legends Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman’s famed concert at Carnegie Hall on March 18, 1990, featuring performance clips and new interviews with opera star Angel Blue, Met Opera General Manager Peter Gelb, and more.
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Berlioz: Les Troyens (1983)
Character: Cassandre
Berlioz’s colossal masterpiece requires stupendous forces—dozens of soloists, enormous chorus, orchestra and ballet, a superb conductor who understands the uniqueness of the score—plus a production that does visual justice to the work. “A stupendous achievement” was one critic’s assessment of Peter Wexler’s inventive production. And with James Levine’s wizardry galvanizing the marvelous all-star cast, this is truly a gem. Plácido Domingo is the legendary hero Aeneas, Jessye Norman the obsessed prophetess Cassandra, and Tatiana Troyanos is Queen Dido, who commits suicide when Aeneas leaves her.
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Karajan's Magic and Myth (2014)
Character: Self
Over twenty-five years after his death in July 1989, the controversial Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan remains an enigma. He was the most successful conductor in the history of classical music. Many of his recordings - of Italian opera, of Wagner and Richard Strauss, of Sibelius, Beethoven and Brahms - are treasured by music lovers around the world. Yet, even at the peak of his fame, his performances were variously criticised for being too opulent, too manicured, lacking warmth or spiritual depth. This musical profile explores the many paradoxes in the life and music of this controversial figure, who forged his international reputation in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra shortly after the end of the Second World War and went on to reign supreme in the classical music world during his three decades with the Berlin Philharmonic. The film also examines Karajan's belief in the visual power of music, and his determination to leave behind a substantial legacy of music on film.
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Die Walküre (1990)
Character: Sieglinde
The gorgeous and evocative Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen production continues with this second opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle. Hildegard Behrens brings deep empathy to Brünnhilde, the favorite daughter of the god Wotan (James Morris) who nevertheless defies him. Morris’s portrayal of Wotan is deservedly legendary, as is Christa Ludwig, as Fricka. Jessye Norman and Gary Lakes are Sieglinde and Siegmund, and Kurt Moll is the threatening Hunding. James Levine and the Met orchestra provide astonishing color and drama. (Performed April 8, 1989)
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Mitterrand, président culturel (2021)
Character: Self (archive footage)
On the occasion of the fourty years anniversary of François Mitterand's election, a look back to the relationship between the President and artists, from admiration to manipulation.
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Ariadne auf Naxos (1988)
Character: Ariadne / Primadonna
Jessye Norman is a regal Ariadne, the mythological Greek heroine in this opera-within-an-opera, opposite the passionate Bacchus of the great James King. Kathleen Battle delivers the coloratura fireworks of Zerbinetta, the leader of a commedia dell’arte troupe that finds itself stranded on Ariadne’s island. Tatiana Troyanos and Franz Ferdinand Nentwig star as the young Composer and the Music Master in the opera’s prologue. James Levine brings out all the color and charm of Strauss’s brilliant chamber-sized score with its equal amounts of pathos and humor. Bodo Igesz’s production features sets by esteemed designer Oliver Messel.
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Oedipus Rex (1993)
Character: Jocasta
Impressed by Jean Cocteau’s rewrite of Antigone, Stravinsky asked the poet for an adaptation of Oedipus Rex. The resulting libretto brings together the key scenes of Sophocles’s tragedy translated by the Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin—a language that, according the composer, “is not dead but engraved in stone, and so imposing that it is immune to any popularization”.
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Im Herzen des Lichts – Die Nacht der Primadonnen (2002)
Character: Self
In 2001, twelve singing divas from all over the world gathered in Taormina, in the world-famous Greek amphitheater. Under the direction of André Heller, they let their unique voices ring out in the magically illuminated venue. This "festival of the last prima donnas" included, among others, the American star soprano Jessye Norman, the "Voice of Africa" Ami Koita, the jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, hailed as the "new Ella Fitzgerald," as well as the highly successful Israeli pop singer Noa and her Arab-Palestinian counterpart Amal Murkus, the "Piaf of the Gypsies" Esma Redzepova, and the reincarnation of Naples music, Lina Sastri.
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Vangelis – Mythodea (Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey) (2002)
Character: Self - Lead Singer
The concert setting of the Temple of Zeus in Athens could not be more atmospheric if it tried and those cosmic and Hellenic artefact images projected onto the backdrop are superbly integrated with the music.Whoever edited the footage deserves an oscar,because every fade,cut-away and image-meld is executed with a supremely expert eye and ear,and more than one image will stun you with it's breathtaking beauty.Very well done to all concerned!
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