Renée Fleming
VOICE OF A NEW GENERATION Renée Fleming Finds Inspiration in the Divas of Yesteryear
If any one singer has been the public face of opera since the turn of the century, it's Renée Fleming. The soprano of choice for events both celebratory and somber, she's been called upon to perform everywhere from the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony to a memorial service at Ground Zero, where her singing of "Amazing Grace" gave an indelible voice to the nation's mourning. All the while, her career on the opera stage -- and in the recording studio -- has continued to flourish. In fact, for more than a decade, Fleming's recordings have been a nonstop source of pleasure, thanks especially to her embrace of music off the beaten path -- roles like Strauss' Daphne and Massenet's Thaïs that are seldom heard but happen to be ideal for her luscious voice. In that sense, Homage: The Age of the Diva, Fleming's latest recording, is a perfect fit: Looking back to roles favored by star sopranos of the early 20th century, the singer gathers up a bouquet of gorgeous but little-known arias, and in the process leaves no doubt as to her own place in the pantheon of opera greats. Barnes & Noble.com's Scott Paulin reached Fleming by phone to chat about, among other topics, her fascination with one of the most colorful chapters in opera history.
Barnes & Noble.com: You write in the liner notes to Homage that your heart belongs to the music of the fin de siècle. Could you say a little more about the appeal of that era?
Renée Fleming: Oh, absolutely. [Richard] Strauss is at the heart of most of what I do right now, if there is any one composer, and I guess any music that has such richness and that evocative kind of lusciousness appeals to me. But also -- and even more importantly -- that music fits my voice very well.
B&N.com: Many of the arias you sing on your CD come from operas that have fallen into neglect. Do you think they're just waiting for the right singers to come back and reinhabit them?
RF: It's mixed: Some pieces just went out of style. Sometimes it was the war that interrupted a certain thread, and then after the war something completely new started. Korngold fell out of favor, but now we do find his music beautiful; Die tote Stadt is part of the standard repertoire pretty much everywhere. And then there's the issue of the piece itself -- if an opera as a whole is flawed, doesn't work well dramatically, or now seems dated. And sometimes it is a question of who you can find to sing these works. Last year I recorded Strauss' Daphne, which is rarely done, because it's impossible to cast.
B&N.com: I know you've researched many of the legendary divas of the early 20th century and spent a lot of time with their recordings. But if you could go back and attend opera performances in that era, what would you buy tickets for?
RF: Well, I just found out that Lotte Lehmann said that Korngold's Heliane was her favorite role, and that surprised me, so I would want to hear that for sure. I would want to hear Mary Garden as Thaïs, Maria Jeritza as Tosca, and Emmy Destin in, well, anything Czech, probably Dalibor…. All of them!
B&N.com: I was surprised to learn that Magda Olivero is alive and well in her mid-90s.
RF: I just met her! We had a wonderful time together. She is so fit and well looking and funny, a great storyteller. She gave me a breathing lesson; I loved her! She told the story of her Met debut, and how all she did -- this was in Tosca -- was sing "Mario, Mario" [her first line] -- and the show stopped, because people had waited so long to hear her. Isn't that wonderful? I had goose bumps, it was so much fun.
B&N.com: Do you think that singing has changed since the day of these great divas?
RF: People are more studied now as musicians. Most of us now have a master's degree at least, if we're going to be singers. And people then were more likely to hook up with a voice teacher at an early age and not have any formal music training. So that manifests itself tremendously in terms of the way in which we relate to the composer. We're much more respectful now.
B&N.com: But is that always a good thing?
RF: No, it's a mixed bag. What's lost is a stronger personality, an individual personality, maybe, and also a little bit of the fun of seeing what somebody does, whether it's cutting something, or adding pitches, or stretching phrases that shouldn't necessarily be stretched -- of course I'm never guilty of that! [laughs]
The other thing that I really envy about that particular period and about these singers is that they worked with the composers directly, and that completely captures my imagination: thinking about the fact that they knew them, and these pieces were written for their bodies and voices and temperaments. I wish I could do more new music. It's difficult getting an opera premiere together -- a huge amount of work.
B&N.com: A project like Love Sublime, your recent album with the jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, must also satisfy that kind of desire.
RF: Oh definitely, I admire him so much. I love his playing, I love his music, and I'm a big fan of his. And I have two more premieres coming up, one with Wayne Shorter, which is with orchestra, and one soon with Henri Dutilleux.
B&N.com: Love Sublime is very different from what I'd anticipated -- I guess I hadn't expected an album of art songs from Brad Mehldau. But in his liner notes, he talks about wanting to write music that sounds improvised but actually leaves nothing to chance. It sounds like that would make it really hard to perform!
RF: When I looked at the score, I said to him, "You have to come over and teach this to me, because there aren't enough hours in the day." Every single rhythm was notated exactly, but it sounds free. It was incredibly difficult because he wanted it just so. I don't think I ever did quite get it exactly; we did on the recording, but in the performance, there were mistakes here and there because it was so difficult.
B&N.com: One of the next things we'll be seeing from you is a DVD of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata, co-starring Rolando Villazón. He seems to be everybody's favorite tenor these days.
RF: He's fantastic, he really is. I love working with him, he's a great colleague, and a very funny man -- you don't even have to think about singing, you just laugh. And he's so bright; I think to be that funny you have to be very smart.
B&N.com: And down the road, you'll be featured at the Metropolitan Opera in a few years in a new production of Rossini's Armida, which was a breakthrough role earlier in your career.
RF: In 2010, yes, that will be fun. I'm actually looking to revive some things now because I've just done so much repertoire. I'm also excited to bring Thaïs to the Met in a couple of years -- I love the role.
November 2006
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