BBC Radio: Renée Fleming Interview #1

BBC radio's Jenni Murray talks to the "most gorgeous and busiest opera star on the circuit" (Vogue), American lyric soprano Renée Fleming.

Topics discussed:
- Fleming's album "Renée Fleming By Request"
- the role of Bess in Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess"
- the new image and concept of the opera singer as an image
- the dessert named after Renée and her recording for one of the "Lord of the Rings" soundtracks

Musical excerpts from:
- "Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém" ("O silver moon") from Antonín Dvořák's opera "Rusalka"
- "Summertime" from George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess"

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Renée Fleming
• Jenni Murray
• BBC
• radio
• interview
• George Gershwin
• Porgy and Bess
• Antonín Dvořák
• Rusalka
• Lord of the Rings
• La Diva Renée
• chocolate
• dessert
• Vogue
• magazine
• opera
• music
• classical music
• lyric soprano
• singer
• diva

[frufruJ]

@bakinek: Sorry, I'm Czech, too, but she does her best with every language she sings in (how many, eight?). Amazing. And she keeps improving with the pronunciation. She's the great singer of our generation. Bakinek, when you sing perfect German, Italian, French, Russian, Portuguese and others, THEN criticize her Czech. If you can't enjoy her singing only because of her accent, it's your bad. We can.

[tomkellycartoons]

So true. In my first year of enjoying opera, I saw "Aida." I was momentarily taken aback when the star came out....looking for al the world like a pumpkin with feet. Within 3 seconds of her singing, all that went away. That big girl BECAME the lovely young girl of the character. I learned my lesson well. The music is all.

[SsteinwayS]

So beautiful... :)

[helloanonymity]

Thank you for this. Renee is so beautiful--in every meaning of the word.

[SsteinwayS]

Wagner is hard to sit through, especially with costumes (I've haven't done it...yet), but the music is GORGEOUS.

Well...Deborah Voigt, I must say, still sounds incredible, but now I guess, has lost some of that "larger than life" Wagnerian soprano look - still, I'm not complaining now! She looks fantastic. I posted an BBC radio interview about her talking about her weight loss too, actually.

[tomkellycartoons]

Hahahaha....never!!! We have Siegried coming up, and....I'm looking forward to the five hours of Wagner (sort of) but don't know if I can sit through five hours of Achim Freyer's costume and staging. Ugh. Night of the Living Dead!

[tomkellycartoons]

Dear Deborah Voight underwent bypass surgery (which she's quite open about) and says she feels better, but still...that she felt compelled to do that for ugly reasons is a shame. She is, however, by her own account, happy. And she does, I have to say, look wonderful. We saw her in concert after her transformation. She said she had to learn to sing all over again. Remarkable. I loved her both before and after.

[SsteinwayS]

Hahaha...luckily you didn't leave before you heard her!

[SsteinwayS]

No problem! Glad you agree!

[tomkellycartoons]

Thank you!! So true!

[SsteinwayS]

I agree with you frufruJ, but I can understand that native Czechs like bakinek and you yourself would still be a little irked by the pronunciation :P We should appreciate the singing though, and note, as you say, that she sings in a gazillion languages and thus can't fluent in all of them!