Renée Fleming - Glitter and Be Gay

Renée Fleming sings Cunegonde's aria from Leonard Bernstein's Candide. Conductor James Levine, recorded in 1998.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• renee
• fleming
• james
• levine
• opera
• leonard
• bernstein
• music
• candide
• classical

[kngiht84]

I'm sorry, how is Chenoweth better than Fleming ?

[emeboteerf]

What can La Fleming not sing? Full justice.

[k8bits]

Why are you even mentioning Kristen Chenoweth? BARBARA COOK was the original.

[donaldcallen]

@fluidstatic Agree with you about Dessay. She's got the vocal equipment, but she over-acts and I don't care for her phrasing.

I disagree with you about Fleming. It's amazing to hear someone do this lung-buster so effortlessly. And I like what she does with it. Remember that you are comparing Chenoweth, who you both watched and heard (and she's fantastic, no question), with just the audio of Fleming.

Sure, Fleming's voice is darker, more mezzo than Chenoweth. I still think she makes it work.

[Querzeo]

I don't care what they say, I like this very much!

[pinkbeachloverable]

although she is my favorite singer, i have to admit that her voice *is* a little bit heavy for this song. i like kristen chenoweth's version better, because she has a little bit lighter voice. she also adds a little bit of humor to it.:)

[operadiva023]

SHE IS SO GOOD.

[fluidstatic]

@OperaMystery80 I'd have to disagree with your assessment of Dessay's performance of this; she's so deadpan it's almost depressing, while Chenoweth's ironic and "flaky" approach really compliments the score in a way that Dessay didn't. Otherwise, I do agree - Fleming shouldn't be singing this. She's a technical genius, but her efforts at comedy are far too broad here.

[alvin821]

@ OperaMystery80 Chenoweth earned her master's degree in opera performance. You can tell from her technique that she's not "pure broadway".

[OperaMystery80]

@heaslch09 Gotta disagree. As good as Chenoweth is, she knows she can't really sing opera at a professional level. Emmy Rossum sang in the opera chorus as a child at the Met. She sang Christine in Phantom of the Opera in '04, a role which contains operatic technique, but she's no opera singer. Chenoweth is pure Broadway, we all know that. Fleming is to opera what Chenoweth is to Broadway. Chenoweth does a better job singing this. Fleming is embarrasingly bad here. Her voice's too big for this.

[OperaMystery80]

Why do so many opera singers love to sing this ? Bernstein never called Candide an opera. This is Broadway. A good Broadway star like Kristen Chenoweth does it justice; and only a few operatic sopranos can do a good job with this. Look at Natalie Dessay's 1997 Glyndebourne Youtube video. She's terrific. June Anderson & Kiri Te Kenawa do it quite well too. But for me the best is definitely Natalie Dessay. Fleming's technique/style is unsuited to this. And the speaking parts are silly