Jessye Norman Quotes
I read everything. I'll read a John Grisham novel, I'll sit and read a whole book of poems by Maya Angelou, or I'll just read some Mary Oliver - this is a book that was given to me for Christmas. No particular genre. And I read in French, and I read in German, and I read in English. I love to see how other people use language.
Norman, Jessye. Interview with Michel Martin. Tell Me More, NPR, 6 May 2014.
At the time, the Muslim culture was far more advanced than the Christian. Also, the Roman Catholic Church was very sexually prudish compared with the more modern Arabs, To the distress of the Christian leaders, the Christians of Spain were attracted to the more modern Islamic society. This was just the opposite of today. Since the 9th century, the Muslims have become much more restrictive and prudish in their religion while the Christians and the West have eclipsed them and greatly modernized. So today, it is the Islamic leaders who worry that the Muslims are attracted to Western culture.
Jessye Norman was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. She was a commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, associated with roles including Beethoven's Leonore, Wagner's Sieglinde and Kundry, Cassandre and Didon by Berlioz and Bartók's Judith. The New York Times music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls."
