Music Weblog

Renée Fleming [b.1959] is an operatic soprano born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, whose parents were both music teachers.  She spent most of her early years in Rochester, New York—her family moved there when she was still a child—and subsequently studied voice at the Crane School of Music, part of SUNY–Potsdam.  She later returned to Rochester for graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music.

After winning a Fulbright scholarship, Fleming worked in Europe with legendary soprano Elizabeth Schwartzkopf before returning to the States and additional studies at Juilliard.  At this point in her performing career, Fleming was dividing her time between appearing with smaller opera companies plus at the Juilliard opera center, as well as singing in jazz clubs around New York City to help cover her living expenses.  Her career took off after being named one of the Metropolitan Opera Audition winners in 1988, when she was 29.  Later that same year, Fleming made her major company debut with Houston Grand Opera, appearing as the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.  This is the same role that would mark her debut with the San Francisco Opera and at the Met, both in 1991.

Fleming continued to build her repertoire throughout the 1990s, expanding it to include many bel canto roles in works by Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini—the three compositional giants of that era—that included the title roles in Donizettti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Rossini’s Armida.  But she also became known for taking on an even broader range, such as appearing in John Corigliano’s world premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles at the Met [1991], in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with Chicago Lyric Opera [1993], in Massenet’s Hérodiade (as Salome) in San Francisco [1994], in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (as the Marschallin) in Houston [1995], and in Gounod’s Faust (as Marguerite) in Chicago [1996].

After the turn of the new century, Fleming’s star continued to rise in the opera world, especially at the Met in New York.  Thanks to an exclusive recording contract with Decca—the first female opera singer since Marilyn Horne, 31 years earlier, to sign such a deal with that label—Fleming became perhaps the most recognizable opera performer in North America.  Particularly thanks to the influence of new general manager Peter Gelb, the Met felt comfortable enough to create revivals of long-neglected works or mount premieres of pieces never done on the Met’s stage, simply because they knew that casting Renée Fleming as the lead soprano would invariably sell out the house.  Some of these operas were Il Pirata by Vincenzo Bellini, Thais by Jules Massenet, and Rodelinda by G.F. Handel (the latter subsequently revived for the Met’s 2011–12 season).

A triple Grammy winner, Fleming’s most recent award was in 2010 for Best Classical Vocal Performance for Verismo, a CD of rarely performed Italian arias.  A number of her more recent operatic performances with the Metropolitan Opera have been captured on DVD, notably as part of the “Met in HD” cinecast series.  When she is not singing, Fleming also fulfills the role of host for many of those Saturday afternoon performances.

Performing what has become her signature aria, Fleming sings “Song to the Moon” from the opera Rusalka by Antonin Dvořák [1991]:

Juan Diego Flórez [b.1973], an operatic tenor and the son of a popular Peruvian singer and musician, has risen to become the most famous opera singer ever to have come from Lima.  After securing a place at his country’s National Conservatory of Music as a teenager—although reportedly still wavering as to whether he should pursue a classical singing career— Flórez joined the Coro Nacional (National Chorus), which gave him significant experience in performing works by the world’s greatest composers.  From 1993 to 1996 he attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music on a scholarship, performing in several student operas there.

Flórez also spent time in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he was tutored in vocal studies by the great mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne.  In 1994, Peruvian tenor Ernesto Palacio asked Flórez to come to Italy and participate in the making of an opera recording; the elder statesman of South American opera soon became the younger singer’s teacher and mentor.

With a voice that combines a lightness of tone with surprising projection, despite its seeming lack of power, Flórez gravitated toward the bel canto repertoire of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.  Perhaps not surprisingly, that particular era—roughly 1805 to 1840—was also the preferred period for both Horne and Palacio.  The best singers of this type of music exhibit the following characteristics: flexible technique; wide range, especially with upper notes; highly focused attack; and graceful phrasing with impeccable breath control.

At age 23, Flórez made his professional debut at the Rossini Festival in the composer’s birth city of Pesaro, Italy.  He sang the lead tenor role in Matilde di Shabran, a fairly obscure work among the 30-odd operas Rossini wrote, filling in when the scheduled performer (American tenor Bruce Ford) took ill.  Later that fall, Flórez made his La Scala [Milan] debut in Armida by Gluck.  It was opening night of the 1996–97 season at La Scala, and famed conductor Riccardo Muti was on the podium.  The maestro went on to play an important part in the young tenor’s continued professional development and exposure.

The following year saw Flórez appear for the first time at London’s Covent Garden, where he sang the main tenor role in the world premiere of Elisabetta, an opera by Gaetano Donizetti recently discovered after being lost for more than 150 years.  Among his most frequent roles is that of Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Sevilla; Flórez debuted at Vienna in this part in 1999, and at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2002.

At last count, his repertoire totals 31 operas, of which eleven are by Rossini.  His most acclaimed roles, however—other than the Almaviva from “Barber”—have involved works by the other two primary bel canto composers.  In Donizetti’s La fille du regiment (“Daughter of the Regiment”), the signature tenor aria includes six high Cs.  This role was said to be the one that catapulted Luciano Pavarotti to instant fame.  Anyone who has heard Flórez perform the same piece, “Ah! Mes ami,” cannot help but notice the seemingly effortless way he hits those high notes without the slightest concern.  Flórez has sung  a number of times in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and L’elisir d’amore (“Elixir of Love”), as well as making highly regarded appearances in Vincenzo Bellini’s I puritani and La sonnambula (“The Sleepwalker”).  He has recorded half a dozen solo CDs on the Decca label, receiving a Grammy nomination in 2009 for his album, Bel Canto Spectacular.

Juan Diego Flórez (with soprano Nino Machaidze) sings “A te, o cara” from Bellini’s I puritani [Bologna, 2009]: