A new exhibition reveals Augusta-born opera icon Jessye Norman through her clothes

While selecting garments for the new exhibition Discovering Jessye Norman: Style. Voice. Legacy., curator Kenneth Green came across one coat in particular that took his breath away.

Floor-length and metallic green, with an enormous, billowing hood and flashes of brilliant purple at the cuffs, buttons and lining, it had all the grandeur and dramatic silhouette of an operatic costume. He could almost imagine it sweeping across the stage at Covent Garden or accompanying an entrance for a Carnegie Hall recital. But on closer inspection, it became clear the stunning garment wasn’t for the stage at all: It was simply Jessye Norman’s raincoat.

A magnificent one, admittedly, the sort of garment that might have allowed Norman to arrive at the Metropolitan Opera through a gale-force downpour and emerge looking immaculate. For Green, it was another reminder that Norman’s flair for the dramatic wasn’t confined to the stage. Even her everyday wardrobe indicated the presence of a true diva.

The raincoat is among several pieces from Norman’s wardrobe currently on view at Atlanta’s Southwest Arts Center in an exhibition drawn from the collection of the Jessye Norman School of the Arts in Augusta, the legendary soprano’s hometown. Along with gowns, opera shawls and other pieces, the garments offer an unusually intimate view of an artist whose public image was often defined by the grandeur of her voice and the scale of her achievements.

“Her clothing kind of tells us about who she was,” Green says.

Norman, born in Augusta on September 15, 1945, grew up in the South, attending segregated schools in her hometown. In spite of her humble beginnings, she eventually became one of the most celebrated opera singers of her generation, performing at the world’s major opera houses and concert halls. Yet the exhibition offers a different way to approach her legacy, not simply through the roles she inhabited but through the clothes she wore beyond the stage.

Norman’s belongings and career materials have been dispersed across several collections and institutions. She donated her papers to the Library of Congress in 2019. Some of her possessions had already been sold at auction in 2017 when she moved from her longtime home in Westchester County, New York. A smaller collection of garments retained by the Jessye Norman School of the Arts in Augusta offers a more intimate connection to the soprano’s life and style.

Green was invited to organize the exhibition after the Jessye Norman School of the Arts and its foundation encountered his work through Clothes Story, his Atlanta-based company, which explores African American women’s histories through clothing. He spent months working with Norman’s collection, researching the garments and trying to piece together the stories they tell.

The task required choices. Green could display only about 15 garments in the available space, though he estimates that the collection he worked with comprises roughly 200 pieces.

Green’s interest in clothing as a form of historical storytelling has deep roots in Atlanta. For Spelman College’s 125th anniversary in 2006, he helped bring the institution’s history to life through archival photographs and historically recreated garments. The project reflected an approach that informs his work with Clothes Story: using clothing to imagine the women behind the images, how they presented themselves, what their circumstances might have been and how their individual lives intersected with a larger institutional history. His projects have focused on African American women’s histories, generally spanning the years from 1881 to 1965.

“We kind of tell how clothes help us move our journey forward,” Green says.

Green’s own background includes musical theater, commercial dance and television in Los Angeles, as well as work as a casting director and choreographer at Walt Disney World. He has lived in the Atlanta area for about four decades and has worked on cultural programs including the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Washington, D.C., and a celebration of Congressman John Lewis’ birthday.

He brings a theatrical eye and a historian’s curiosity to this small sampling of Norman’s wardrobe. “Some of the clothes, although they look like they were used on stage, were just the clothes that she wore,” he says. Other pieces were more restrained. “A lot of her clothes kind of had that performative feel. But then there were also times where they were very conservative.”

The exhibition includes a recreation of one of Norman’s striking public appearances: her performance of the French national anthem during France’s bicentennial celebration in 1989. For the occasion, she wore a design by Azzedine Alaïa made from a French flag. The outfit was visually arresting and the moment symbolically charged: a Black American soprano singing the nation’s anthem at a major national celebration.

The exhibition also includes formal gowns, a hand-painted kimono, opera shawls and more. Looking across the collection, Green was struck by the sophistication of the designs. “There were very sophisticated lines in terms of the cuts in a lot of her clothing. A lot of her gowns were incredibly elegant,” he says.

Norman’s career took her from Augusta to the world’s great stages, where she performed for royalty and world leaders. But Green hopes visitors will leave with more than an appreciation of her accomplishments. He wants them to discover the woman behind the reputation and perhaps to approach opera with fresh curiosity.

“If people walk away learning about her and understanding opera and giving it a chance, I think we’ve won,” Green says.

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Andrew Alexander is an Atlanta-based writer, editor and arts journalist. A longtime contributor and former senior editor at ArtsATL, his work appears regularly in local, regional and national publications, covering theater, visual art, music, film, dance, literature and the artists and institutions shaping Atlanta’s cultural landscape.