Renée Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is a Grammy Award winning American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.
Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also speaks fluent German and French, along with limited Italian. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro , Desdemona in Verdi's Otello , Violetta in Verdi's La traviata , the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka , the title role in Massenet's Manon , the title role in Massenet's Thaïs , and the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and the title heroine in Arabella .
A Richard Tucker Award winner, she regularly performs in opera houses and concert halls worldwide. In 2008 she was awarded the Swedish Polar Prize for her services in music.
Renowned conductor Sir George Solti said of Fleming, "In my long life, I have met maybe two sopranos with this quality of singing, the other was Renata Tebaldi."
Early life and education
A daughter of two music teachers, Fleming was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Rochester, New York. She has a brother, Ted, and sister, Rachelle, both also devoted to the study of music. As a youngster, Fleming enjoyed popular music and admired the talent of Joni Mitchell among others. In addition to the standard operatic repertoire, she performs new music, Broadway show tunes, and other popular genres.
She studied with Pat Misslin at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam. While at SUNY Potsdam, she took up singing with a jazz trio in an off-campus bar called Alger's. The jazz saxophonist Illinois Jacquet invited her on tour with his big band, but she chose instead to continue with graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY with voice teacher Jan DeGaetani. She won a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled her to work in Europe with Arleen Augér and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. This was followed by further studies at The Juilliard School. While at Juilliard she sang in roles with the Juilliard Opera Center, appearing as Musetta in Puccini's La boheme and the Wife in Menotti's Tamu-Tamu , among others.
Career
1980s to 1990s
Fleming first began performing professionally in smaller concerts and with small opera companies while still a graduate student at Juilliard. She sang frequently in the Musica Viva concert series sponsored by the New York Unitarian Church of All Souls during the 1980s. In 1984 she sang nine songs by Hugo Wolf in the world premiere of Eliot Feld's ballet Adieu , which she again performed in 1987 and 1989 at the Joyce Theater. In 1986 she sang her first major operatic role, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail , at the Salzburg Landestheater. Two years later she portrayed Thalie, Clarine and La Folie in Jean-Philippe Rameau's Platée with the Piccolo Teatro Dell Opera.
Fleming's first major break came in 1988 when she won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions at age 29. That same year she sang the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro in her debut with Houston Grand Opera. She reprised the role the following year in her debut at the Spoleto Festival. Also in 1989, Fleming made her debut with the New York City Opera as Mimi in La Bohème and her debut with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden as Dirce in Cherubini's Médée . She also was awarded a Richard Tucker Career Grant and won the George London Competition.
In 1990 she was once again honored by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation but this time with the highly coveted Richard Tucker Award. That same year she made her debut with Seattle Opera in her first portrayal of the title role in Rusalka , a role that she has since recorded and reprised at many of the world's great opera houses. She also sang for the 50th Anniversary of the American Ballet Theater in their production of Eliot Feld's Les Noces and returned to the New York City Opera to sing both the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Micaela in Bizet's Carmen . In addition, she sang the title role in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia with the Opera Orchestra of New York.
In 1991, Fleming made her Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera debut portraying Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro . Fleming was originally not scheduled to make her Met debut until the next season, but ended up making it earlier than expected by stepping into replace Felicity Lott who had become ill. She returned to the Met later that year to sing Rosina in the world premiere of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles . That same year she made her Carnegie Hall debut performing music by Ravel with the New York City Opera Orchestra, sang Rusalka with Houston Grand Opera, and made her debut at the Tanglewood Festival as Ilia in Mozart's Idomeneo with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In 1992, Fleming made her debut with Grand Théâtre de Genève as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte . She also sang the role of Anna in François Adrien Boieldieu's La dame blanche at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York and the role of Fortuna in Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione at Alice Tully Hall, as part of Lincoln Center's Festival of Mozart Operas in Concert .
In 1993, Fleming sang the role of Alaide in Bellini's La straniera with the Opera Orchestra of New York, made her debut at the Rossini Festival in the title role of Rossini's Armide , and her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the title role of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah . She also gave her New York City solo recital debut at Alice Tully Hall to great acclaim. She also sang her first Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera and performed Berg's Lulu with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and James Levine. She also sang the world premiere of Joan Tower's Fanfare with Pinchas Zukerman and the Aspen Chamber Symphony and the world premiere of John Kander's Letter From Sullivan Ballou at the Richard Tucker Awards ceremony.
In 1994, Fleming sang her first Desdemona in Verdi's Otello and her first Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes with the Metropolitan Opera. She also made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro . She also performed the role of Madame de Tourvel in the world premiere of Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons and sang the role of Salome in Massenet's Hérodiade with the San Francisco Opera.
In 1995 Fleming portrayed the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier with Houston Grand Opera, sang Hérodiade with the Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall, and sang Rusalka with the San Francisco Opera. She also sang Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Solti at Royal Festival Hall and gave a lauded recital at the Morgan Library. She further signed an exclusive recording contract with the London/Decca label, making her the first American singer in 31 years to do so (Marilyn Horne was the last).
In 1996, Fleming sang the title role in Rossini's Armida and the role of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte at the Met and performed the soprano solos in the Verdi Requiem with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She also sang her first Marguerite in Gounod's Faust with Chicago Lyric Opera and sang the role of Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opéra National de Paris at the reopening of the Palais Garnier with Sir Georg Solti. She was also chosen by Solti to be the first recipient of the Solti Prize, to be given to an outstanding younger singer. The award is given by the Academie du Disque Lyrique in a ceremony equivalent to the Grammy Awards. Fleming also made debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Eva in Wagner's Meistersinger . Her other performances that year included recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival and at Alice Tully Hall.
In 1997, Fleming portrayed the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and her first Manon at the Opéra Bastille, receiving glowing reviews. She reprised the role at the Metropolitan Opera along with singing Marguerite in Faust and Rusalka. She also performed in concert twice with the New York Philharmonic, first under the baton of Zubin Mehta performing a selection of opera arias, and second singing Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate and three songs of Richard Strauss with Kurt Masur. She also performed at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony and performed Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Orchestra of St. Luke's under André Previn. She gave several recitals as well at such notable places as the Salzburg Festival.
In 1998, Fleming sang the title role in Richard Strauss' Arabella with Houston Grand Opera and the Countess with Lyric Opera of Chicago. She also sang the title role in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah and Countess Almaviva in a landmark production of Le nozze di Figaro at the Met. The Mozart production also starred Cecilia Bartoli, Susanne Mentzer, Dwayne Croft, Danielle de Niese, and Bryn Terfel and was broadcast on PBS' Great Performances . She also made her Carnegie Hall r
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