renee fleming

[pianistimo]

i knew she was good - but i just heard her tonight on a special they were having - and found listening to her a real treat.  somehow, even though i don't celebrate x-mas the traditional ways - i like hearing her versions of the songs.  even 'the holly and the ivy.'  i guess that song has a pagan tradition - but the tune itself and the way she sings is amazing!  she has really just gotten better and better.  you know how some singers kinda get to a point and start singing terribly.  she's different.

anyone agree?

[le_poete_mourant]

she's from my hometown so she's quite a big deal here.  her and phillip seymour hoffman.  the hometown heroes.  success stories.  she sold out a concer there that i didn't go to, but people i know did and said it was excellent. 

[pianistimo]

do you care if i ask what your hometown is?  she's so precise and yet moves the vocal line so fluidly.  amazing talent.  and, i thought for sure she would be worried about a high note i knew was coming - and she just hits it from above and then settles into it - like it's just another one of those things.  it gives me spine tingling chills to listen to her.  she seems genuinely nice, too.

[burstroman]

I agree completely with you Pianistimo.  Having listened several interview with her, Renee Fleming seems very honest and pleasant.

[le_poete_mourant]

do you care if i ask what your hometown is? 

You can ask all you want.  But I won't tell you.   

Actually my hometown is Rochester, NY.  I don't think Ms. Fleming actually lived in the city, somewhere in the suburbs, but I think her mother taught at Eastman, and that's where she got the vocal genes. 

[arbisley]

It's like anywhere Mozart happened to live for a few days, where they prouvly put up a sign "Residence of Mozart". it all gets terribly commercialised at some stage, but then that story is a more creditable one than most!

I might add I live about 5 minutes drive from Arkady Volodos' parents and have visited them once, not knowing what an amazing virtuoso their son was...

[txmuslguy]

  We've had her twice here in Houston, Texas so far.  Both times I got lucky enough to get tickets to the performances at the Houston Grand Opera.  In one performance she played Violetta in La Traviata, the other performance was Hanna Glawari from The Merry Widow.  All I can say is that both performances were breathtaking.  Her voice control, beauty of sound, acting ability, etc, were superb.
  Most memorable was the final scene from the first act of Traviata, where Violetta professes her love for Alfredo.  Rene Fleming was lying on her back on a couch as she was waving a scarf above her, as if playing with the scarf. Beautiful aria, I can't remember the name of that particular piece, but she had the audience absolutely spellbound with that performance. Not a sound fron the audience, absolute stillness as everyone watch the magic unfolding in front of us! What a glorious sound from her voice.  Anyway, thats my two cents.  Wish you all could see her perform at some point in the future.
TX 

[pianistimo]

wow.  she must be a good singer and actor - to sing completely lying back on a couch.  i mean, who can do that? 

ok.  rochester.  makes sense that her mother was also into music.

arbisley, wow.  you visted arkady volodos parents?  agreed about the signs in front of everyone's door - 'so and so lived here.'  what if was a temporary residence and they have about five of them - and they charge at each location? 

well, i've been to valley forge and seen the bed president george washington slept on.  it looked a might short.  and no room for martha.  unless they were awfully small people.  if they actually had to make due with these beds - they'd not have slept much.

ok.  i'd like to visit salzburg and vienna - etc. but how realistic is that right now.  i mean, i'm still begging for a grand piano.  there are so many places in the world i'd like to see.  i guess even gravesend - although, perish the thought, thal would be in the moors.

[cmg]

Yeh, Renee Fleming is a wonderful singer!  A friend of mine is her accompanist and vocal coach.  They studied together and were roommates in NYC in the early 1980s when no one paid much attention to her.  She's a smart, sweet, gracious lady who's handling her great success with real style.

I've heard her many times in NYC and she never fails to deliver a great performance.  Her Mozart is, well, perfection.  Great Massenet, too, I think.  Not so long ago, I heard her Verdi "Requiem" in Carnegie Hall with Jimmy Levine, the Met orchestra and chorus.  Just extrodinary.  Her voice, though, is actually not all that large.  In the Verdi, she was the only soloist in the quartet who was drowned out in fortissimo passages. 

I just hope she doesn't push her instrument to sing roles any bigger than Violetta.  Unfortunately, she's preparing the role of Norma, which may be the beginning of the end of her career.  It's enormously difficult to sing and the only singers who have survived it are those with HUGE voices -- like Sutherland, Callas, Caballe.  Hers in a medium-sized one.  A lot of people in the business who admire her don't want her to do Norma.  But, I can see why she would want to.  It's the ultimate challenge for a soprano in the Italian repertoire.  Let's hope. 

Oh, and singing lying down, by the way, isn't hard at all.  It's the same principle when standing or sitting -- you simply support from the diaphragm.  Operatic singers do it all the time.

[pianistimo]

a friend of yours is her accompanist and vocal coach.  wow!  that's something!  interesting what you said about roles and how they can be 'too much' sometimes.  i tend to agree that you should spin around in your own orbit and not worry about the huge mountains 'over there.'  but, then again - as you say - she would have everything to gain if she pulled it off.  but losing one's voice is a mighty big setback.  nodes are terrible.  a friend who had a medium sized voice completely lost hers for about three years.  i had no idea this was possible.  although - i suppose with excellent coaching - and mic's - one could overcome this?  do they sometimes, at the met - circle around a performer and tell the other voices to quiet a bit?

[jakev2.0]

Excellent singer. Her Elijah is really good. Plus she's a bit of a hottie.