Princess Renée's not only flawless but on-trend. Above, the cover art of an 18-track retrospective that dropped today gives a naughty peek-a-bewb. The American soprano revisits career-defining roles and classic arias such as Casta Diva, O Silver Moon, O Mio Babino Caro and Ebben? Ne Andro Lontana, natch, while four bonus tracks include a reworking of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and a duet with Terfel.
Below, Renée's fellow New Yorker of comfortable age, success and notoriety -- J.Crew's president/executive creative director Jenna Lyons, who was photographed a couple days ago rocking the same demurely-unbuttoned, peek-a-bewb style at Opening Ceremony's 10th anniversary.
Renée Fleming and Alec Baldwin shared Love Letters during a Thursday night performance of the work by American playwright A.R. Gurney to benefit the Carnegie Hall Notables membership/ticket program for young music enthusiasts at Zankel Hall.
(Renee and Alec with A.R. Gurney)
Where have you been, Renée? As sunny as Cézanne's oranges, the soprano steps from that shady-looking Frenchman's canvas into a conference room at Warsaw's Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa for a press conference to announce her concert tomorrow nigh at the Poland-land venue. Kristjan Järvi will be conducting Renée and the Orkiestra Opery Narodowej in a Strauss-heavy program with some Italian, French, Austrian, and Czech arias thrown in. We love her singing and all, but we want a look into her jewelry box. Renée's always iced out.
Amanda Ameer's Life's A Pitch has a breakdown of that Renee Fleming/Law & Order guest appearance that was hyped, but never actually happened. We're with Fleming on this one, for good reason, since apparently, it insinuated that opera singers typically enjoy their cocktails straight up their a$$e$.
She's once, twice, three times a (sophisticated) lady. Renée Fleming's crossover into rock with Dark Hope was her gateway drug. Now she's contributing to jazzy bassist dude Charlie Haden's new CD, Sophisticated Ladies, which drops later this month with tracks from Diana Krall, Melody Gardo, Norah Jones, and Cassandra Wilson.
Continue reading "Renée & Josh in Tuscany (Oh Yeah and Sting was There Too, Whatevs)" »
Renée Fleming gave a big-a$$ interview to Corriere della Sera the other day (online here). "Renée Fleming, la Grace Kelly della lirica" and "La regina del Metropolitan" is how the American soprano was described -- couched as an iconic figure that Hitchcock would have loved: "Blond and sweet, the face of an angel with an icy glance, markedly elegant in the most fabulous clothes with an intense sensuality hidden behind aristocratic mannerisms." Curtsey to the Queen, plebs!
She spoke about her latest CD, Dark Hope, and some of her past roles. She remembers her La Scala premiere in 1993 as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni which exited to great applause. But in 1996 she returned to boos for Lucrezia Borgia. What does she have to say about that: "Yeah, it was lame, but at La Scala, you know, that's what happens. They even booed Pavarotti. La Scala is a special theater, it's a temple of opera. Opera is like a sporting event, complete wtih the rallying fans on each side. To make sure that the incident it wasn't going to give me a complex, I came back as soon as I could -- 7 months later -- and it was a triumph."
And of the voice that her fans love so much? "It's a gift and a mystery, no one knows when it will go or when it will leave you. To sing is always a risk, at every age. But it's this fact which makes singing so exciting."
Renée is back in Italy, performing tonight in a Gala at Torre del Lago's Puccini Festival, a warm-up for a second Gala performance at Cortona's Tuscan Sun Festival.
Italian daily La Repubblica describes Renée as, "affascinante, elegante, bella come una Reese Witherspoon appena piu' accarezzata dal tempo" ("Enchanting, elegant, and beautiful like Reese Witherspoon if she were gently caressed by time").
American soprano Renée Fleming was given the full page treatment in Rome-based daily, La Repubblica, where she spoke at length about her newest CD, Dark Hope. After Pavarotti & Friends paved the way for opera crossover, Renée accepted a new mission that's taken opera to a new level. She's Renée -- that's what she does. Dark Hope, her first CD to follow the Grammy-winning Verismo (arias from Leoncavallo, Giordano, etc.) is her interpretation of pop tracks from Leonard Cohen, Jefferson Airplane, Peter Gabriel, Muse, and others.
Read what she had to say after the jump!
For a WSJ feature on Renée Fleming "Aria on the Future", the American soprano talks about where she's at and what she is (and isn't) down with.
(Photo: Decca/Andrew Eccles)
La Renée will be singing in the lovely Tuscan town of Cortona for the 2010 Tuscan Sun Festival, which runs from July 20 - August 5. She'll be singing under the stars for August 3rd's Opera Gala in Piazza Signorelli as part of the festival's 8th season. Tickets go on sale in April.
We hope she gets there a bit early and enjoys the landscapes OC loves so much: the delicious Tuscan wines (Brunello di Montalcino, Morellino, and although OC isn't a Chianti girl, it's okay, we know it's good), Corys' restaurant Il RistoArte, the ghostly shell of L'Abbazia di San Galgano, Museo Diocesano for one of the most stunning paintings we've ever seen, Beato Angelico's Annunciazione (aka: what happens when God slips a roofie in your Hummus Martini), and maybe a night sleeping under a jesus cross at the 13th century former monastery Hotel Oasi Neumann.
Renée Fleming's latest solo CD, Verismo (on shelves for a few months with Renée singing arias by Cilea Leoncavallo, Mascagni and Puccini) has already won the American soprano her fourth Grammy Award, but we're even more psyched for the Chorus and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (under the baton of Marco Armiliato), who cut the disc with Renée, and who Corriere della Sera's music critic congratulated in a review from last week: "the biggest praise goes to La Verdi, who sound intense and velvety".
La Verdi, a humble and hardworking group of musicians who thrive despite not having had a Music Director for ages (founded as Giulini's kids, Chailly, Muti, and Maazel all share a special bond with the young and talented musicians, and now they're under the expert care of young Chinese Music Director, Xian Zhang) thrive despite scarily low wages, and thrive despite (even scarier) state funding cuts. Opera Chic will be at La Verdi's gorgeously warm Auditorium di Milano tonight to check out the orchestra against Ian Bostridge and Maestro John Axelrod, and will hopefully be embraced by some of that intense velvet that they found with Renée.
The French coolness that is Olivier Bellamy is radioblogging Renée Fleming's playlist -- everything from Puccini to Joni Mitchell, with a nice hommage to Claudia Muzio and to la signora Magda Olivero: the list after jump...
(Photo AP: Act II of Der Rosenkavalier)
The fact that the greatest composer of the twentieth century, Richard Strauss, chose the final trio from Rosenkavalier as the music he wanted played at his funeral -- conducted by the young Georg Solti -- seems to have created some sort of general impression that the entire opera is owed some taxidermist's form of respect -- like a funeral march for fresh ideas that at this point sort of polarized most stage directors in two fields -- the organza /tulle /wig fans and the not-so-avantgarde-anymore directors who choose instead to degrade the story into an impressively vulgar brothel anecdote in the name of, you know, throwing away that tired organza. It's also interesting to realize how a lot of conductors have divided themselves into two factions, too -- the ones who listened to a lot of Kleiber's Rosenkavalier (let's call them Team Watteau) and the ones who endured a lot of Karajan (let's call them Team Rembrandt).
The late Nathaniel Merrill's production of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier opened last night at the Met (where it had last appeared roughly a decade ago). The Strauss package got unwrapped (although everything is actually wrapped in layers of organza and silk tulle, from the windows to the women) and serves as our hyper-real (Frengo would be proud) billet doux to a generic Maria Theresian Vienna.
Continue reading "Der Rosenkavalier: Hawt Girl-on-Girl Action on the Met Stage" »
A little bird (called Twitter) told us that Renée Fleming will be signing copies of her Verismo CD next week at the Metropolitan Opera shop, located on the ground floor of the Metropolitan Opera. Now if only they could bring in Julian Schnabel for a meet & greet, who currently has two works hanging in the Met's Schwartz Gallery, we'd be in heaven.
She was there, and you weren't. Make way for the Queen. Head Byotch in Charge, Renée Fleming, at the Metropolitan Opera's 2009/10 Season Opener on September 21, 2009.
[Update: Even more Renee after the jump!!]
Just shy of forty appearances as Guest Conductor for the New York Philharmonic, native UWS New Yorker, Alan Gilbert, was thrown into the international cult of conducting stardom, and appointed (Summer 2007) as the incoming Music Director to the venerable New York institution. Will the New York Philharmonic's gamble pay off? For the next five years, New York's podium belongs to this 40-something wiz kid of two New York Philharmonic violinists (one former, as daddy Michael -- who totally looks like Dwight Eisenhower -- has retired), Juilliard/Harvard/ Curtis Institute-trained, former pupil of Solti -- to round-out the prestigious former MD title holders of the New York Philharmonic (Gustav Mahler, John Barbirolli, Leonard Bernstein, & Toscanini, those heavyweight legacies -- OC's favorite Toscanini quote: "Even donkeys can conduct, but make music, eh? Difficile!").
For Lincoln Center's high profile 50th Anniversary season, which has already poured millions of dollars into a face-lift for the dated, sprawling, 1960s stomping grounds (and a revitalized logo) ostentatiously pulls the cherubic-faced Gilbert into the spotlight. Will he make the joint cooler? Will he make us laugh, cry, and make us feel all funny in our expensive Eres britches?
Will he manage to be cooler than Dudi on the West Coast? And with better hair?
NYC's concert halls seriously need a little more flava -- does Gilbert have the right stuff?
The maestro stepped out onto Avery Fisher Hall's weathered stage in a his frac, white bow-tie, beaming exuberantly for his inaugural launch with his New York Phils at last night's Opening Gala. Magnus Lindberg, the Finnish composer (and former E-Pek BFF...the two even founded an instrumental ensemble together at the Sibelius Academy) who just began his 2-year appointment as the NYPhil's official Composer-in-Residence, enjoyed a high-profile debut of his work, marking the inaugural piece conducted by Gilbert as Music Director (and starting out your tenure with Lindberg, then Messiaen is a very very good omen).
This "EXPO" is one of Lindberg's two, newly-commissioned works, this one as stated by the composer was specifically written in homage to Alan Gilbert's premiere as MD. "EXPO" literally started with the crack of a whip (the work's instrumentation calls for it), whipping (huh) the orchestra into a frenzy. The snazzy piece took on a very flourished, assuming nature and overexerted itself at times -- like a petulant teenager. Ambitious ideas gave way to big, complex sounds: not Magnus at his best, but a pretty brash, kick-a$$ way to warn everubody that there's a new sheriff in town. The short work was really just the appetizer for the night's big big thing -- Renee Fleming singing Olivier Messiaen's Poèmes pour Mi.
Renee glided onto the stage in a shoulder-baring royal blue gown with an iridescent brown wrap by Angel Sanchez. Girl's got an undebatable, gorgeous body and we know she works hard on maintaining it, which is why we'd love to see her show it off with edgier, fashion-forward, revealing dresses and less of the junior prom style she insists upon -- she's almost bashful about being stunning. She shouldn't.
Nonetheless, flawless as ever, Renee's Messiaen was, for many reasons, the highlight of the evening. Hearkening to the spirited collaboration between the composer and former MD Zubin Mehta (handled the world premiere of Messiaen's Eclairs sur l'Au-dela), the selection was a knock-out by Gilbert, and we laud him for choosing the rarely-performed gem.
"Mi" was the sobriquet of Messiaen's violist wife, Claire Delbos, whom he had married only four years prior to the composition of the nine-song cycle, serving as propaganda of their happy union. The work was composed in the Summer of 1936, spent in the foothills of the Alps, and one can't escape the many allusions to pastorals and bucolic landscapes. The poems are divided into two books, originally worked for voice and piano, an intimate and dulcet conversation between the two instruments.
Fleming stepped it up and hit a grand slam for the NY Phils, one of the best sopranos on this sorry planet since Montserrat Caballé, mirroring the score with a sparkling smile, flawless delivery, unguarded emotion and an open, gentle heart. Throughout the cycle, Gilbert and Fleming worked together seamlessly (until they reached a small kink at the end of the cycle) shadowing each other respectfully and transparently. Gilbert, who simply gets this piece, expressed great foreshadowing at the inception of the work, which gave way to a flowering, enrapturing movement that later turned crystalline and snappy. Fleming was in clear voice, with "Epouvante" and "L'epouse" showcasing her gorgeous, middle and lower registers. Willowy and ringing, the work was an escapade of emotion and color. As sung in, "Paysage", she was the veritable "gros bijou bleu", the big blue jewel of the evening.
"Le Colliere" in the second book of the cycle demonstrated Gilbert's conducting chops and how he can easily slip into the backlights of the performance. He allowed the orchestra to shape itself without demanding or insisting upon the spotlight. He blended into the background, a canvas prepped. He melted away in front of the orchestra so that it became all about them, and his presence barely registered at all. However, this could also be considered his biggest flaw in light of the emerging pop cult of young conductors: Dudamel, Gardner, Harding, Axelrod, Ticciati -- all conductors with such bubbling, charismatic personalities that they imprint their orchestras with kinetic and infectious energy long before they've even raised their batons. Gilbert, on the other hand, has unoubtedly depth and introspection and intellect, but asserts himself without foisting it in your face. Without that kind of theatrical charisma, he'll need to shape his personality as a conductor, to which luckily he has many years to embark on that journey. He's too young to be the severe, grayed, introspective tyrant -- yet too old to be the sprite. If anything, Gilbert could be accused of lacking a certain thunder, an underlying weight and anchor to the music.
If "Le Colliere" was the highlight of Gilbert's skill, the following "Priere Exaucee" was where Gilbert became too invested in the orchestra and lost focus of the soloist. The orchestra swelled into such a colorful presence, that Fleming was drowned in the maelstrom. Overworked and over-bloomed, the synthesis was lost. Regardless, Fleming exited to a standing ovation, completely deserved for her astonishing work.
After the intermission, the predictable show-stopper, Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. OC admires Berlioz, that cranky Frenchman, but his Fantastique isn't one of OC's favorites. Give us Roméo et Juliette, L'enfance du Christ, Te Deum, Troyens, or Béatrice et Bénedict any day. The Fantastique is too often the domain of the flashy and the vulgar. Seiji Ozawa, by far the greatest living Berlioz conductor, knows very well that Berlioz’s Fantastique is a visionary work of awesome power and centrifugal force. The problem is that most conductors – unlike Ozawa or, to a much lesser extent, Muti – ignore the nooks and crannies that give meaning to the almost psychedelic nature of this symphony, diving instead in an ocean of bombast and, often, simply noise.
Alan Gilbert is too subtle a musician to fall in that trap, but he does lack Ozawa’s discipline -- and a measure of ruthlessness -- that would allow a conductor to explore Berlioz’s revolutionary counterpoint. What Gilbert did last night, if elegant, was neither merciless enough nor lean enough to illuminate what's hiding in the scarily difficult score, that's full of traps.
Gilbert's first movement, Allegro agitato e appassionato was an earnest effort -- hesitant, savored, delicate at times, which built to a lovely crescendo with a good weight and pulse, 'tho a bit muddied at times. The second movement, Allegro non troppo, was a legato reading of the ballroom waltz that satisfied, but left something to be desired.
The Adagio is when Gilbert lost his way a bit. He's undoubtedly musical, obvs, but relied on the compositional beauty of the work to keep the performance buoyant when it needed more edge and personality, more shaping -- it needs to be cut like a diamond in every moment. His pragmatic approach did justice to the work, but he didn't touch on any new ideas, which left us wanting more. The fourth movement, Allegretto non troppo, was a bit of the same. It might be challenging for Gilbert to find effective expression when the composition is muted in color. When there's more subtle movement, it seems Gilbert wallows in the score to find depth, which may not always be the best approach. The final movement, Larghetto -- Allegro, bounced back for Gilbert, with a great range of dynamics, very visceral and stirring. We would have liked to hear it more savored and labored, but Gilbert must have been so excited to conclude his nerve-rattling debut.
All in all, we look forward to hearing more from Gilbert. Now that he's at the helm, it's hard to imagine anyone else holding the baton. We're curious for his skills as an opera conductor, and could see him flourishing at the podium (we're looking forward to hearing his May 2010 NYC premiere of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre). But the night was lackluster, as hit & miss as the tepid star power that turned up for the evening: Meryl Streep , Billy Joel, and Alec Baldwin (natch, as he's been appointed to fill-in hosting duties for the NYPhil and interviewed Gilbert during the half-time show). Although the honorary celebrity spotting goes to Evgeny Kissin, Russian pianist who's in town for his October 1 Carnegie Hall Opening Night, in the mens bathroom fluffing his 'fro.
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Seiji Ozawa -- that adorable gray mouse of a 73-year-old conductor -- is back in the Henri Dutilleux saddle. Tonight at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, he'll herald France's premiere of the Dutilleux song cycle, "Le Temps l'horloge" with Renee Fleming and Orchestre National de France.
The American premiere of Hank's work was in November 2007 with James Levine and the BSO, while only a month prior, Ozawa led the world premiere in Japan. The 9-minute song cycle, comprised of three songs and written expressly for Fleming, is based on French poems from Jean Tardieu & a WWII Nazi victim memorial inscription by Robert Desnos.
France is all about a bukkake of Ozawa-related stuff these days, so today Radio France is throwing an Ozawa-fête, where they'll devote the entire day of programming to the Japanese maestro.
The highlight is a live stream from Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, which will broadcast the 8:00 pm concert. In addition to Fleming and the Dutilleux song cycle, the program includes Ravel's Ma Mère and music selections from Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette. Ozawa conducts Orchestre National de France.
Le Figaro is carrying a story with Ozawa, who they've appropriated as ~King of French Music~. We're gonna go ahead and appoint Édith Piaf as the Queen and MC Solaar as the Prince...thanks in advance.
Sarah B., the woman who knows everything about entertainment AND magazines and so much else, is all over the awesome Teen Vogue shoot at Renee Fleming's modest Upper West Side penthouse, where la Fleming's intensely adorable teenage daughter, Amelia Ross, set up a beautiful place to have tea with her friends (with a little help from a Met opera set designer).
Hi-res scans of May's Teen Vogue and much else over at Sarah B's.
On Sunday, January 18, 2008 for the "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration", Renée Fleming looked on as Stevie Wonder snacked on a harmonica.
She also belted it out of the [Lincoln Memorial] park with her reheated vocals, taking the stage with the US Naval Academy Glee Club for Rodgers & Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone." OC is proud that her hometown diva was plucked among the contenders to represent the ~opera star~ constituency at such a historical event. Go Renée go! Rub those red cashmere shoulders with Barack Obama...damn!
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Josh Groban, the unrequited lusty nerd idol of middle-aged housewives, was also in attendance, making the ladies trill in their panties. o yeah.
The priceless Sarah B., the goto girl for everything entertaining under the sun (or snow) in New York, alerts her readers that, among the Must-DVR events of the upcoming week, there's the spasmodically unmissable appearance of Renee Fleming at The View, on Thursday, December 18th, Live (11AM on the Disney Channel for grownups, ie ABC).
