▶️ Jessye Norman Sings Saint-Saëns Aria

’Jim Crow’ describes a peculiarly brutal period of legal violence (e.g., lynchings) widely inflicted upon formerly enslaved Afro-Americans (Black) by European-Americans (white) in the USA. Jessye Norman was born during this era, in 1945 Augusta, Georgia. Here she is performing the aria ’Mon coeur s’ouvre à la voix’ from Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah with the National Orchestra of France, Michael Schonwandt conducting. The music to which Norman dedicated her musical gift was European art music and her earliest successes on the stage were also in Europe. Norman’s memoir ’Stand Up Straight and Sing!’, published in 2014, was written, she said, to tell the story of ’African-American families in the Jim Crow South’ who wanted to have ’their worth in the world’ acknowledged. English translation of lyric fragment: ’But, oh my beloved, To better dry my tears, Let your voice speak again!’ Find us @AfroxMusic: afroxmusicinfo@ Our stories are in the music.