Georgia: A Grand Mansion of Sound with Sharon McMahon
The Preamble
Sharon McMahon
4.9 • 15.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this solo episode, Sharon shares the story and career of opera sensation Jessye Norman from Augusta, Georgia. By the end of this episode, you will love and adore the voice of this woman, who was a pioneer in so much more than opera. Jessye was born in the 1940’s South, where Jim Crow Laws were in place - schools, businesses, and her town were still segregated. Her mother was a school teacher and taught all her children to read and play the piano - and that is where her family discovered her ability to sing. Her parents taught her that she is no different than anyone else and deserves to live her dreams. Sharon walks listeners through stories from Jessye's career and how she helped change the opera.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, hello, hello, so happy that you're here. I have just a delightful story for you today. |
| 0:09.4 | We are doing something a little bit different instead of me sharing this story with one of my |
| 0:15.0 | friends I'm going to share with you and you can let me know do you like hearing |
| 0:19.3 | just me talk to you or do you enjoy hearing me talk to my friends so let me know after |
| 0:24.4 | you listen to this what your thoughts are but today I want to get into this story |
| 0:28.3 | of a woman who really has just touched my heart. She is one of the queens of American music. So let's |
| 0:38.0 | get into it. I'm Sharon McMahon and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. |
| 0:45.0 | This is a woman who perhaps you don't know now, |
| 0:50.0 | but you definitely should. |
| 0:52.0 | Y'all know who Jesse Norman is |
| 0:55.4 | I hope after this episode you will fall in love with her the way I have |
| 1:00.2 | Jesse Norman is an American opera star. |
| 1:04.0 | Don't turn off this episode and be like, |
| 1:06.0 | hate opera, hate it, not interested in opera. |
| 1:10.0 | Let me tell you, I am not an opera fan. |
| 1:12.0 | I am not somebody who is like, ooh, got to go to the met, |
| 1:15.2 | got to listen to all the people in the costumes saying words I don't understand. I get it. I am not an opera fan, her story her voice I just love it so much so she was |
| 1:27.5 | born in Augusta Georgia in 1945 and this was of course during the time of Jim Crow. Schools were segregated. Her mother was a school teacher and her mother taught only African American students. |
| 1:42.0 | Jesse Norman was from a black family. |
| 1:45.2 | So her mother got paid very little to teach at the school. |
| 1:48.5 | Her dad was an insurance salesman, but her parents strongly believed in their children's abilities and all of the |
| 1:56.9 | children in the family were taught to read by their mother at the age of four. |
... |
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