NJ Star-Ledger
22 January 2012
New roles, and teenage daughters, keep soprano Renee Fleming on a learning curve
In opera — as with any island of the arts — there are popular pleasures as well as buried treasures.
For more than 20 years, soprano Renée Fleming has been an ideal tour guide to both the familiar and the obscure for audiences around the world.
“I like to learn new things all the time,” says Fleming in a phone interview.
“It kind of drives me crazy, but it also keeps life interesting.”
Klassik Akzente
10 January 2012
Im Februar erste Deutschland-Konzerte von Renée Fleming in 2012
Renée Fleming beginnt ihre Konzertaktivitäten in Deutschland 2012 mit einem Einsatz für die gute Sache. Im Rahmen einer Benefiz-Gala zugunsten des Neubauprojekts CampusOne der Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe wird die Starsopranistin am 5. Februar in Begleitung von Hochschulrektor und Pianist Hartmut Höll auf Schloss Gottesaue musikalische Leckerbissen präsentieren, während sich Sterneköche wie Armin Röttele, Lea Linster und Sören Anders des leiblichen Wohls der Gäste annehmen und ein Lichtkünstler und ein Meisterflorist für den gelungenen optischen Rahmen sorgen. Der Bau des neuen Campus' rund um das Schloss wird zwar vom Land Baden-Württemberg großzügig gefördert, beträchtliche Kosten für die Erstausstattung nach der geplanten Fertigstellung Mitte 2012 muss die Hochschule jedoch selbst aufbringen.
Chicago Tribune
16 November 2011
On wings of (cyber) song: Renee Fleming conducts a Web master class for Merit voice majors
By John von Rhein
Like every young marriage, that of Lyric Opera of Chicago and Chicago's Merit School of Music has a few kinks to be worked out before it can deepen and develop.
Last weekend, Internet gremlins did their best to quite literally crash soprano Renee Fleming's first master class with selected voice students of Merit's advanced program, the Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory, a brave new venture facilitated by the Web video service Skype.
NY Daily News
12 November 2011
Diva Renee Fleming on 'Rodelinda' at the Met
Renee Fleming revisits her triumphant take on Handel’s “Rodelinda” Monday night at the Metropolitan Opera, where she’s sung 21 roles in 20 years.
That’s one busy diva.
Not that this upper West Side soprano who’s been called opera’s golden girl has been keeping track.
“It would so surprise me if it was that many, but it could well be,” she says. “I rarely count anything. But ... 21 ... really?”
Really.
It’s a week before opening night and at the moment Fleming is taking 5 — well, 30. She’s dressed casually in a black blouse and long skirt that hides a soft brace wrapped around an inflamed left knee.
Chicago Tribune
12 September 2011
Lyric, Merit School partnership aims to foster new voices
By John von Rhein
Nine months ago, when Lyric Opera named Renee Fleming to its newly created post of creative consultant, the superstar soprano excitedly outlined a broad agenda of plans she had for the company, including creating new projects, expanding the Lyric's education program and collaborating with other Chicago arts organizations and music schools.
Now the famed singer, who also serves an advisory position as a member of the Lyric board, has unveiled an ambitious project that will encompass all those objectives.
And her excitement is, if anything, even more pronounced.
With Fleming as the project's spearhead, Lyric has entered into a wide-ranging collaboration with Chicago's Merit School of Music, a nationally recognized community music school based in the city's Near West Side neighborhood, that will bring a major expansion of the school's vocal program, with Lyric sharing its extensive resources with Merit students throughout the school year.
Chicago Tribune
10 September 2011
Lyric's new ads reach out to the wary
By John von Rhein | View PDF
Lyric Opera of Chicago is pumping more passion into its sales pitches.
It's also spreading that passion into local nooks and crannies where opera is regarded — if it's regarded at all — as an exotic foreign language.
In an aggressive new advertising campaign set to launch across the metropolitan area this weekend, the company is going all out to attract the attention of people who have resisted experiencing opera in the flesh.
"Long Live Passion" is the rubric for a series of tongue-in-cheeky ads splashing Lyric's name across billboards, in bus shelters, in selected newspapers and magazines, and over the Internet — places where few folks would expect to come across drum-beating for opera.
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Watch
Renée Fleming - Endlessly
Watch the music video for “Endlessly”, featuring actor Matthew Modine and director Abel Ferrara (“Bad Lieutenant”), as well as Renée’s daughters, Amelia and Sage, and her sister Rachelle. Directed by David Hausen. © 2010 Decca Label Group
Dark Hope Trailer
Renée Fleming's new album Dark Hope, which the opera star describes as a "visit to a new, parallel universe," now available on iTunes and Amazon.
Read
THE INNER VOICE
The Making of a singer
The Inner Voice traces Renée Fleming’s path to maturity and success as an artist, from her youth as the child of two singing teachers through her years at Julliard, from her struggles to establish her career to her international success. Her articulate and candid book is the most revelatory examination yet of a performing life, of the crucial roles played by a solid education and supportive mentors, of the importance of discipline and a well-established technique, of confronting the challenges of stress and self-doubt, of the myriad details that must be mastered in creating a vivid operatic character or interpreting a song, of the practical necessity of having a firm understanding of how business functions, and of learning to balance personal and professional fulfillment.
