Renee Fleming sings Schubert's "Gretchen am Spinnrade"

Breaking! Renée Fleming was filmed in Ariadne auf Naxos on 02.25.2012 in Baden-Baden!
The opera is still available free-of-charge on medici.tv until May 24th, 2012.
http://www.medici.tv/#!/ariadne-auf-naxos-festspielhaus-baden-baden-philippe-...

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Watch the whole concert here: http://www.medici.tv/#!/renee-fleming-and-claudio-abbado-in-lucerne (excerpt only/ whole concert avaible for subscribers only)

Watch all our Renée Fleming videos here: http://www.medici.tv/#!/renee-fleming

Watch all our Verbier Festival videos here: http://www.medici.tv/#!/verbier-festival-4

Soprano Renee Fleming sings "Gretchen am Spinnrade" D. 118.
Music by Franz Schubert, orchestrated by Max Reger.
Lyrics after Goethe's Faust.

Gala concert of the Lucerne Festival.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Claudio Abbado, conductor
Renee Fleming, soprano

Category:

Music

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[BiancoRose]

I love how perfect her G note is

[lucyliesinashes]

Who arranged this for orchestra?

[bjrobins2011]

She is wonderful and beautiful. Wow. People like this make it easier and easier to love music like I do.

[violinistx100]

@lucyliesinashes Liszt

[tervito]

@lagunagreg Yes, to think that she once sang Konstanze! I am reminded of an interview that Jessye Norman gave where she touched on Purcell and Händel. Humorous as always, she said something along the lines of "Well, darling, my instrument can only move SO fast."

I would be thrilled if Fleming's Glawari were committed to disk. I'd even give her another shot in earlier repertory ... I think she could do an intriguing Poppea (or Ottavia) or Phébé in Rameau's Castor et Pollux.

[tervito]

@lagunagreg I was an Ameling groupie for years. One of Fleming's trademarks is that she almost approaches it as a jazz singer. (I've noticed this in particular in her live Lieder performances.) She *does* like to play with the rhythms and the melodies. Often this works marvelously. Oddly, baroque music, where this tendency would work best, just isn't her Fach -- her timbre, attack, and flexibility aren't right for it. But she's a superstar and so-so from her is better than most!

[lagunagreg]

Hi @tervito, Well, that's the problem! Ameling is a wonderful singer, but I always thought of her as extremely conservative. And I still do. So if I have to choose, I'd pick this kind of thing over Elly.

[lagunagreg]

@tervito I woulnd't pay to hear her sing Handel either.  That voice simply cannot move fast.

[tervito]

@lagunagreg My comparison to Callas has to do with the rabid fanaticism of her followers, not with musicianship. I posted on am a zon a very detailed but unenthusiastic review of her frightful Handel CD and was SWAMPED with hate e-mail, none of which responded to a single musical observation that I had made. While I think it's great that she exposes people to this fare, for me it's an unsatisfying way to experience Handel.

[tervito]

@lagunagreg No, I don't like my Lieder bland, but it should be dramatically effective and not just noisy. I have loved Fleming in many things, including her token Schubert recital disk. But this is simply awful. Listen to how Ameling performs the song: properly hypnotic at the beginning, building in intensity, a daringly protracted hold when Gretchen swoons after "sein Kuß!", and finally a spine-chilling portamento at the final "verGEHen sollt'".

[lagunagreg]

@tervito- well that's jealousy for you. No, I'm not her biggest fan. I would never pay to hear her sing coloratura!

[lagunagreg]

@tervito- whatever you say, darling. But you obviously like your Schubert really, really bland, as many people do. And Flemming is no Callas. How stupid to say that. Their instruments are nothing alike.