到纽约大我20多岁的友人家,她全家都是opera的爱好者,她的大姐姐是音乐系毕业的.她自己本身是opera俱乐部的会员.

虽然这次是因为她病了,去看她的,但是,因为相同的爱好,那天晚上,点燃了蜡烛,就开始听Jessye Norman 的CD.

竖琴声仿佛是从宇宙的边缘,如海边悄悄到来的海潮, 漫漫的, 歌声,轻轻的就这样漾过来了,......42街的高层楼上,楼下车水马龙的流动的灯河,楼上烛火摇曳,白色的窗帘微舞,衬着远方微微泛澜的河海,和高楼上五彩的霓虹灯.......美丽的歌声中,仿佛看到天使的翅膀在黑色的苍穹上飞翔,天堂的光亮从翅膀后面偷射过来....光亮中多少受伤的心的伤痕在歌声中被抚平, 祈望在歌声中上升,心中的烦躁在歌声中变的宁静........是从心里出来的歌吗,无须言语, 何须言语, 就这样,似乎身心在歌声中被清洗的圣洁和透明.......

这是天堂来的歌声吗,好的音乐是会让心和它一起共鸣,让眼泪和它一起流淌, 无论在那里听到它,因为这样的音乐,就让所在的地方成了似乎是最靠近上帝的地方,这样的歌声,在这样的夜里,是我友人医病最好的药,是我心最好的处方, 就这一刻, 几乎让我爱上这一刻嘈杂中的宁静的纽约........

听过很多版本的Ave Maria, 但是觉得还是Jessye Norman 唱的这个古诺的版本最好, Jessye Norman也唱过green sleeve, 也是我听过的觉得最能表现这个歌曲精髓的版本.

当然这只是个人之见而已,但是因为喜欢就放在这上面, 希望有缘听到的人也喜欢.呵呵,喜欢opera 的人都知道Jessye Norman不是一般的有名,虽然这个录像的效果没办法象在音响中的效果那么好,但是没办法,找不到其他的版本,只能用这个录像来一瞡她美丽的歌声了.

Ave Maria  的原歌词

The full Latin prayer when spoken, as well as the Dutch version of the prayer, read as follows ,  The full Latin prayer when spoken, as well as the Dutch version of the prayer, read as follows

翻译成英文 : 意思如下 :

Hail Maria
Full of grace
The Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women
And blessed is Jesus
The fruit of thy womb
Holy Maria
Mother of God
Pray for us sinners
Now and in the hour of our death
Amen.

演唱者介绍:
当代最受尊敬的歌剧演唱家之一 --Jessye Norman( 介绍部分摘自 Wikipedia )

Jessye Norman (born September 15, 1945) is an American soprano opera singer. Norman is one of the most admired contemporary opera singers and recitalists, and one of the highest paid performers in classical music. A true dramatic soprano with a majestic stage presence, Norman is associated in particular with the roles of Aïda, Cassandre, Alceste, and Leonora in Fidelio. Norman has been given the nickname 'Just Enormous' for her powerful voice.

Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia in a family of amateur musicians; her mother a pianist, her father a singer in a local choir.

Norman received a scholarship to Howard University, graduating in 1967 with a degree in music, and from the University of Michigan with a Masters Degree in 1968. 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 December 1997, Jessye Norman was invested with the USA's highest award in the performing arts, the Kennedy Center Honor, making history as the youngest recipient in the Honors’ 20-year existence. Her many other prestigious awards and distinctions include honorary doctorates at the some thirty colleges, universities and conservatories around the world. In 1984 the French Government bestowed upon her the title "Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris named an orchid for her. In October 1989 she was awarded the "Legion d’Honneur" by French President Mitterand, and in June 1990 she was named Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations by U.N. Secretary Xavier Perez de Cueller.
Jessye Norman’s distinguished catalogue of recordings has won numerous awards, including France’s "Grand Prix National du Disque" for albums of lieder by Wagner, Schumann, Mahler and Schubert; London’s prestigious Gramophone Award for her outstanding interpretation of Strauss’ Four Last Songs; Amsterdam’s Edison Prize; and recording honors in Belgium, Spain, and Germany. In the USA, her Grammy Award winning recording includes "Songs of Maurice Ravel," and Wagner’s Lohengrin and Die Walküre. She was winner of an "Ace" Award from the National Academy of Cable Programming for "Jessye Norman at Notre Dame." Recordings released recently are Das Lied von der Erde, with James Levine and Berliner Philharmoniker, and Bluebeard’s Bastle, with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which has received four Grammy nominations. In addition to her operatic performances, Norman gives regular recitals, singing arias, Lieder, and spirituals, and collaborates with other artists: Norman 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 Estés; performed a selection of sacred music of Duke Ellington; recorded a jazz album, Jessye Norman Sings Michel Legrand; and was the soprano co-lead in Vangelis' project Mythodea.

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.

Her hometown, Augusta, Georgia, dedicated a riverfront amphitheater named in her honor in the early 1990s. Since the early 1990s Norman has lived in Croton on Hudson, NY in a secluded estate known as The White Gates which she purchased from television personality Allen Funt.

On September 22nd, in Pasadena, California, after giving a performance at Blair IB Magnet High School, Pasadena's mayor declared that day "Jessye Norman Day" in Pasadena.