Dynamic Jessye Norman Conquers All In Sold-Out Opera House Performance

Jessye Norman, soprano, in Seattle Symphony Distinguished Artists Series recital, with pianist Dan Saunders; Opera House, last night.

The first Norman Conquest occurred in 1066, but the Jessye Norman Conquest took place last night in the Seattle Opera House - where a capacity crowd rose to shriek and stomp its response to such encores as Strauss' "Zueignung," Bizet's "Habanera" (from "Carmen") and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand."

One of today's great reigning divas, Norman owned the stage from the moment she stepped into the spotlight, wearing an abstract-print caftan that did little to display a rumored 100-pound weight loss over the past year or so (the change is most evident in her face, with its beautiful planes and angles).

Nearly everyone present last night, even curmudgeonly critics, probably would agree on one point: Norman's voice is one of America's great natural resources. A phenomenon like this doesn't come along every day - a big, pliant, opulent sound of distinctively beautiful timbre. And at 46, Norman should be at the height of her powers, with plenty of career still to come.

What Norman does with that voice is more open to argument. She can sing very expressively - almost too expressively, as she crouched around the end of the piano in the most predatory, exaggeratedly sinuous "Habanera" on record (yes, she has recorded it). Yet a lot of last night's program was curiously under-characterized, beautifully sung but not communicative.

This was most evident in her Tchaikovsky set, a grouping of pretty but routine songs that aren't even very good Tchaikovsky. Norman did little to make an interpretive mark with them.

Much better was a Strauss set that included such gems as "Seitdem dein Aug' " and "Cacilie," and better still was Falla's ubiquitous "Seven Popular Spanish Songs." Here Norman set the mood and told the story, right down to the flashing eyes, the bared teeth, the chest-voice and the drama.

"The Confession Stone," a song cycle by Canadian composer Robert Fleming, is a set of simple, direct songs set to poems about the life of Christ. They are folksy poems, and despite their powerful subject matter, the songs don't make a very strong impression because the music isn't very profound.

The song cycle is set quite low (it was written for contralto Maureen Forrester), and maybe that's one of the problems: Norman's voice never ascended into challenging territory, where the range of the song provides its own share of drama.

Dan Saunders was a supportive pianist, despite some instances of sloppy and offhand playing.

Norman is listed as a soprano, but last night's audience heard a mezzo-soprano recital. Excursions above the treble staff were rare and sometimes labored; the vocal color has changed along with the range. But a voice like this can sing anything its owner wants to, from Carmen to Alceste to Sieglinde, from opera to spirituals to popular songs. Designations such as "soprano" and "mezzo" don't really matter; what counts is quality.