Fleming, Renee

▪ 2001

      American soprano Renée Fleming continued to command the heights of the opera world in 2000, winning wide acclaim with the recording Strauss Heroines, which she made in collaboration with a number of colleagues. She was praised for the beauty and richness of her voice and for the thought and sensitivity she brought to the texts. Although Fleming had come to be known particularly as a singer of Richard Strauss, her repertoire was extraordinarily broad, spanning three centuries and ranging from Handel and Mozart through 19th-century bel canto to the works of a number of contemporary composers.

      Fleming was born on Feb. 14, 1959, in Indiana, Pa., but she grew up in Rochester, N.Y., where her parents taught music in high school. She began music lessons as a young child and as a college student had success as a jazz vocalist. In 1981 she graduated from the State University of New York College at Potsdam with a degree in music education. She continued her studies at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, N.Y., and from 1983 to 1987 studied at the Juilliard School's American Opera Center in New York City, where Beverley Johnson was among her teachers. She spent 1984–85 on a Fulbright fellowship in West Germany, where she studied with Arleen Augér and, in a master class, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Prior to performing, Fleming always experienced anxiety, and after her return from Europe she suffered such a severe loss of confidence that she was forced to withdraw from the stage. She quickly recovered, however, and she made her professional debut in Salzburg, Austria, in 1986. Two years later she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and in 1989 the George London Award. The following year she received the Richard Tucker Award. From this point her career took off, and within only a few years she was in demand at the world's most prestigious opera houses.

      Among Fleming's roles were Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, and the title characters in Handel's Alcina, Massenet's Manon, and Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. She sang the world premieres of the countess in John Corigliano's The Ghost of Versailles (1991), of Madam de Tourvel in Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons (1994), and of Blanche DuBois in André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire (1998). Fleming won perhaps her most lavish praise for her performances as the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, with a number of critics counting her among the very best ever to have sung the role. Fleming recorded extensively, and the recording of Dvorak's Rusalka, in which she sang the title role, won Gramophone Awards in 1999 as the best opera recording and the Record of the Year.

Robert Rauch

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▪ American singer

born February 14, 1959, Indiana, Pennsylvania, U.S.

      American soprano noted for the beauty and richness of her voice and for the thought and sensitivity she brought to the texts. Fleming's repertoire was extraordinarily broad, spanning three centuries and ranging from Handel and Mozart through 19th-century bel canto to the works of a number of contemporary composers.

      Fleming grew up in Rochester, New York, where her parents taught music in high school. She began music lessons as a young child and as a college student had success as a jazz vocalist. In 1981 she graduated from the State University of New York at Potsdam with a degree in music education. She continued her studies at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester and the Juilliard School's American Opera Center in New York City. She spent 1984–85 on a Fulbright fellowship in West Germany, where she studied with Arleen Augér and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Schwarzkopf, Dame Elisabeth). Fleming made her professional debut in Salzburg, Austria, in 1986. Two years later she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, followed by the George London Award and the Richard Tucker Award.

      Among Fleming's more admired roles were Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Marguerite in Charles Gounod's Faust, the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, and the title characters in Handel's Alcina, Jules Massenet's Manon, Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka, and Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. She sang the world premieres of the countess in John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles (1991), of Madame de Tourvel in Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons (1994), and of Blanche DuBois in André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire (1998). Fleming recorded extensively and won numerous honours, including the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award at the 2004 Classical BRIT Awards. She published The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer in 2004.

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