Renée Fleming sings Bellini - "Casta Diva" (Norma)

[helenaprice]

I love her Russalka and her Tatiana, but this is not her role. Still, among "latter-generation" sopranos, she does probably the best job.

[dinulipati]

@philipc67: Who the heck are you to say that Ms Fleming has no right to sing Norma? Likewise, you have no right to listen to her. Not all comments on these presentations need to be favorable, but critcs can be pleasantly instructive. Next time, have a try!.-

[bear46no]

There is much left before she is to become a good Norma. Unsteady voice production, strange coloratura.

what does she want to tell us?

[philipc67]

Oh ye gods what a mess and what hubris! Renee is a beautiful lady with a beautiful Strauss/Mozart voice, but she has NO right to sing Norma. This is Casta Diva? This is jazzy hysteria, oversung, overacted, affected and effete. These are cheap tricks and unforgivable liberties, aimed at hiding her technical inadequacy. Don't singers respect the score anymore?

[saracorto]

non lega per niente..interpretativa, sì, ma i suoni son brutti forte! :/

[S2LAS2]

Sem palavras de tanta emoção, bravooo! :'). Quem é brasileiro da um joinha (y)

[arielcapo1424]

Majestuoso

[Nadyasolnishko]

Прекрасно!

[artemworld]

Poor and weak voice for opera' singer..

Rene and opera are not compatible things

[nostopsnopurgatory]

@artemworld Well the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and every other major opera house in the world disagree with your ignorant comment!

[Wildjehol]

@artemworld I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH STUPID COMMENT

[mordaz]

And I agree with Caballe when she stated none of the new sopranos respect the original compositions anymore. They try to show up tricky skills while destroying the spirit of the arias. She should try to look up Callas, Caballe, Sutherland or Nilsson instead of trying to emulate Mariah Carey or Celine Dion. For God sake we talk about opera and arias, not a pop song.

[mordaz]

TheLyrics300 a pity you didn't heard that many... lots of them better than this rendition plenty of tricks

[Aephqan]

Perfecto!

[1527XZ]

Fter having heard her singing and Callas a few times

they are both fantastic souls and devine.

Netanel

[TheLyrics300]

Best performance of Casta Diva ever heard!!!

[OperaMystery80]

Primo, as much as you like Fleming, even you have to admit she can't sing Norma in it's entirety. Seriously can you hear this voice in such moments as entire dramatic entrance "Sediziose voci! or "Non Tremare". Fleming doesn't really have coloratura which is required. For me also Fleming doesn't have the power in the lower notes either; what she has is a jazz singer's voice within an opera voice. Bottom line: she can't sing Norma. Pirata, Lucrezia, Armida yes but no Norma. It's too much for her.

[primohomme]

@OperaMystery80

You have GOT to be KIDDING me...

Have you heard her in the mad scene from "Il Pirata"? that's exactly the same feel and tessitura as "Sediziose voce", she certainly can handle it. Her voice is lyrical but it is well rounded and colorful, it would be a lyrical Norma.

Also she does indeed have coloratura, not like the lighter coloraturas, but decent coloratura.

And her low register is very strong and mezzo-like, even projecting a low F#

[primohomme]

@OperaMystery80

And here's an exhibition of both her powerful low register (F#3) and her upper register (C#6 and D#6)

watch?v=ECQdtdV60RY

[ezayi]

A bunch of people here, like LohengrinT, never heard such a beautiful Casta Diva after Callas, but I disagree TOTALLY. After Callas, came Caballé. After those two, Flemming is another one of the bunch to approach this. She sings it nice and is beautiful and all you want, but special?... I don´t think so.

[LohengrinT]

I wonder, all these years every voiceless coloratura or dramatic soprano keeps singing this role like shit and they get away with it (Gruberova Theodosiou Sills Devia Milanov Cerquetti etc etc all huge failures as Normas). Gruberova has been singing this role the last 5 years with more mistakes and dreadful sounds than any amateur would be allowed to do. Just because Fleming can annihilate some slurs from her singing she souldnt sing Norma? I cant understand this

[LohengrinT]

This is indeed sublime singing. Probably this is the best reading of the aria after Callas - flawless pitch, unbreakable legato line, perfect support of the vocal line, extremely vocal beauty. A miracle of sound

[DJRBergen]

O my god, I think that I'm in love. I studied opera with a well-known Opera Virtuoso for 2 years. May I?

[ezayi]

@DJRBergen LOL!!!! ;)

[jgdmol4l]

love this. This is truly one of the best renditions. Love her expression at the end too...one of her less affected performances...very beautiful.

[AmericanEvita]

Fleming can't sing all of Norma and never will. Singing Casta Diva is just one small piece in a larger work. The role calls or high tessitura (that she doesn't have because she's only a lyric soprano, not dramatic soprano). This calls for a big voice like Callas, who can still have fioritura, also which Fleming doesn't have. Fleming's voice is lovely but she can't add Norma to her repertoire - ever! She just doesn't have the voice for it. Callas-Sutherland-Caballe do!

[tenor220]

@AmericanEvita In what world is a high tessitura associated with the dramatic soprano voice? Norma is a coloratura role.

[AmericanEvita]

@tenor220 But not a light-coloratura role. It's clearly a heavy dramatic-coloratura role. Callas, Sutherland, Caballe; Fleming isn't a coloratura either. She's purely a lyric soprano. There is a reason she has never gone ahead and sung all of Norma. She's in her 50's now and it's too late. She just can't sing Norma period.

[primohomme]

@AmericanEvita

Well, her voice could handle it, Norma requires strong low chest tones (that's why Joan Sutherland struggled in some passages, specially the duetto "In mia man") as well as easy top notes (that's why Caballe struggled). Renee could handle the range perfectly, the coloratura...well, I've heard her singing a pretty decent "Ah bello" which is the main coloratura piece.

[primohomme]

@tenor220

Norma is not a coloratura role, Norma is an ASSOLUTA role, requires a diva who is both dramatic mezzo and high soprano, coloratura singer and dramatic singer, etc.

[primohomme]

@AmericanEvita

Sutherland and Caballe? have you actually listened to their full Norma? Sutherland struggles with the low passages, Caballe struggles with the high passages. The only one who truly has sung the role as should be sung is Callas.

[Ahdren]

@primohomme Rita Hunter was the first soprano to sing Norma at the Met in the correct key since Ponselle. When Ponselle heard a recording of Ms Hunter singing the Siegfried Brunhilde she said....and I quote :"If Callas had that voice she wouldn't have got into so much trouble"

[primohomme]

@Ahdren

1- Ponselle didn't sing Norma in the original key, she actually transposed almost everything in order to avoid the high C which she was not comfortable with, she was more of a mezzo, not an Assoluta which is needed for the role.

2- When did she say that about Callas and Rita Hunter? it's a load of bullshit, she must have been cenile. Rita Hunter did not have the range to sing "Norma", and indeed sounded like a lesser Montserrat Caballe, AWFUL.

[theflamenkitaa]

tres emouvant que dire de plus voix magnifique ,bref j'adore

[liketheuniverse11]

Renee, you are a goddess!! Wonderful voice, sublime!!!

[mozarthaydn]

Oh men, this woman has a timeless beauty!!!

Besides, she is BETTER now in the realm of bel canto. Many years ago, when her bel canto recital was released, it received mixed reviews from critics. I myself used to have such bias that Fleming could never be a right soprano for this repertoire. However, this rendition changed me deeply. Listen to the crescendo. Other soprano tackle it in a very sketchy manner. Here, all of the notes are carefully sung with deep inspirations. Brava!!!

[LohengrinT]

In my wildest dreams I had never dreamt Casta Diva sung so beautifully.

Definetily the greatest reading of the aria after Maria's

[danilosongs]

Muito bom! Exelente, eu diria!

[jorgepda]

i have never been convinced renee can sing norma. i think i am now.

[danilosongs]

@jorgepda so am I!

[thomastmwc]

@jorgepda But Norma isn't just about Casta Diva :P

[morskoprase]

Everything nice,just i really don't like that her diction is too too bad and you can't understand what she is singing about.In my opinion,it's a big mistake no metter how beautifull voice.

[primohomme]

She looks gorgeous

[primohomme]

@asdfopera

She should at least record it in studio, don't you think? would be safer, or perhaps sing it in recital like Cecilia did

[LohengrinT]

This is more than beautiful

First of all she has the true Norma middle Voice, full and perfectly supported

Then the elegant lines of vocalising the easy fioritura...

This is tremendously beautiful, tremendously

[christiaandhooghe]

It says she will never sing this part....

(Marilyn Horne said....Oh no, no no no NO!)

Pitty but still, it's huge.