Homage: The Age of the Diva ~ Renee Fleming
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Composer: Francesco CileaComposer: Charles Gounod
Composer: Leos Janacek
Composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Composer: Jules Massenet
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Composer: Bedrich Smetana
Composer: Richard [1] Strauss
Composer: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Orchestra: Mariinsky (Kirov) Theater Orchestra
Performer: Renée Fleming
Performer: Yvona Skvarova
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-10-17
Music Label: Decca
Soundtracks:
- Poveri fiori, gemme de'prati
- Dobra! Ja mu je dam!...Jak je mi?
- Pochudilis mne budto golosa...Za dvorom luzhok zelenvoshek
- Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore
- Ich ging zu ihm
- Le ciel rayonne...O l�©g�¨re hirondelle
- Orchesterzwischenspiel
- Wie umgibst du mich mit Frieden
- Tsveti moi!
- Che pi�¹ t'arresti? - Tacea la notte - Di tale amor
- J'ai vers�© le poison dans cette coupe d'or
- Mamicko, mam tezkou hlavu
- Kdo to je? - Jenufko, ty jsi jeste vzuru?
- Ich soll ihn niemals, niemals mehr sehn
Music reviews of Homage: The Age of the Diva ~ Renee Fleming
Music Review: Renee is Renee
Rating: 4 Stars
Being an avid fan and fellow vocal artist I jumped at the chance to pick up Renee's latest. As always I found this recording to be the Renee I know and love. This CD is a pleasant surprise and ironic comparative to Anna Netrebko's future release of her Russian Album. Both albums are very similar in theme as they both prepared rare and lesser known jewels. Though Renee's album doesnt focus on Russian Music there is quite a good selection of Russian rep, again some of which is rarely or never recorded. Even more similar is the aesthetic of the Renee's album cover and booklet. She has truely taken to her theme and transformed herself into a Diva with a capital D. Could there be a little diva action going on between them? *laughs* Who knows...?
As a side note her dramatic weight loss especially in her face does bother me. It seems that Renee has slimmed down to try and compete with the younger and more "beautiful" singers of today. Instead of portraying a young Diva the weight loss makes Renee look older and worn down. Her face seems disfigured and has lost the beautiful structure it had earlier. For an example of this to the extreme look inside the book cover at her second picture next to " A note from Renee" she looks less a diva and more a Victorian/Gothic skeletal apparition. I truly hope she is doing well. My comment to Renee is... "You are beautiful and do not need to change who you are to please the world." Ok back to the review.
Her choices of rep. are very pleasing. Her "Dobra !Ja mu je dam!__ Jak je mi was absolutely thrilling especially in the end with the OVERLY DRAMATIC JAZZ INSPIRED SCOUPED POWERHOUSE NOTE. I actually found myself saying "Oh yeah, sing it [insert word here..you can guess]". My favorite piece I will say was Korngold's "ich ging zu ihm". By the end of the song I had pulled over my car, because the sheer beauty and splendor that is Renee brought me to tears and quivering. I had never heard that piece before and to hear it for the first time from Renee was most wonderful. Her Cleopatre, another piece that was new to me, made me tear up as well. That piece is one that is easily lost to the audience, but Renee, the ever present artist, pulls through with her beautiful long phrases and DRAMATIC ACTING wonderfully. And last of course her Jenufa was and probably will be one of the best roles for her and sent me into a fit of tears and heart wrenched gasping.
Now for some light critism. Her Vissi d'arte was to me a very interesting and odd choice. Her version of the aria was beautiful but I agree with the previous reviewers who said that it was too sweet and that her choice of tempo disrupted the natural silky flow of the piece. Also Her jazz influences to me did not complement this music and made the work seem unprepared. Renee seemed unable to focus herself while performing this song and thus I felt very disconnected from the song and Renee. I will say her acting even at such a slow pace was wonderful. Now...the OVERLY DRAWN OUT NOTE in the end I thought was an intelligent and extremely provoking artistic choice. Renee would be ruined if she sang Tosca on stage but this aria is a splendid choice for her. She just needs to spend more time in preparation so she can really wrap herself around the aria. The only other problem I had is with her aria from Merieille. Yes it was overly ornate and yes it was extremely overdone and dramatic, but i think that style totally fits the music and song. Yet I do not think such a performance best suits Renee's voice. Her voice is much too rich and robust for such things. At one point I had myself thinking "When did Renee become interested in becoming a coloratura." I shouldnt be surprised since she did La Traviata in LA, which I really was facsinated to see. Even so both songs I just criticised were extremely enjoyable especially the Merielle at the end with those screaming high notes. I was like Renee damn again saying to myself "sing it...again insert word here...you can guess." I totally shivered with excitement and I wont lie when after listening to it I found myself repeating it a hundred times and then feeling a little dirty afterwards.
Now I have one more thing to say not about Renee but to opera critics and fans. I find it very concerning of that critics chastise Renee and all other artists. I read people saying that Renee "doesnt portray real women" and "has aweful jazz inflections" and "is too emotionally jarring." Well I have one thing to say.. Art is Art and Renee is Renee. She doesnt portray real women, but isnt the meaning of art to be something artificial. The word art itself comes from artifice. The beauty of her dramatic intrepreation is because it is so unreal that it draws us in and is able to render an experience that is unlike anything else in the world. If her actions were real the same effect would not occurr. People would be turned off and look away. In real life when presented with such problems as presented in opera people become uncomfortable and disconnect to save themselves, which does not allow for such an experience. Second. people blabber about her jazz influences and all that jazz. Well im sorry to say to them "Thats Renee". Renee is an opera singer, but she brings her skills, technique and artistic ambition to the table. Everyone is trying to isolate opera as this one particular art form that consists of this and this and this. That is the recipe for opera's downfall. People are becoming so closed minded and critical about opera that they are not allowing it to evolve and grow. They are stunting its growth and are isolating this unique and splendid art form from truely being appreciated. Its 2006 its time for a change. Renee's unique artistic renderings are possible because of the whole of her experiences not just her time on the operatic stage. With-out her jazz influences and many others Renee wouldnt be Renee. Just as Anna Netrebko was spurrned for doing those light hearted opera music videos. That was opera finding its way in the world and growing and trying out new things. But because of peoples' mind sets about opera, as seen in many of her interviews, they gave Netrebko a image that was filled with disrespect as an professional artist and made her move away from such a path.
People... opera needs to find its own path... a new path to move into the new century. The image of opera and its unique spectacle have wained and it has become a costly and unpopular art. I think the opera community needs to take a big step back and see that its time for change and time to let some things go. Lets try to create art for once instead of imitating it? My final statement. Brava Brava Brava Renee. You truly are The Ameican Soprano.
Description of Homage: The Age of the Diva ~ Renee Fleming
RARELY PERFORMED OPERA ARIAS AND FORGOTTEN GEMS CAREFULLY SELECTED BY TODAY?S LEADING SOPRANO. HOMAGE, THE AGE OF THE DIVA IS A TRIBUTE TO THE ARTISTS WHO GAVE LIFE TO THESE WORKS.Acclaimed throughout the world?s great opera houses, American soprano Renée Fleming enjoys particular success in roles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries when glorious vocal writing and opulent orchestrations took the art of opera to new heights.
In studying and performing this passionately lyrical music Renée Fleming became increasingly fascinated with her predecessors - sopranos of a golden age who made this intensely emotional music their own.
In her latest recording project Renée Fleming pays tribute to remarkable singers including Lotte Lehmann, Maria Jeritza, Rosa Ponselle and Mary Garden; women who achieved iconic status in a rapidly changing world in which their fame was spread through recordings, film and advertising - a time which could be described as ?The Age Of The Diva?.
The beautiful music links the 19th century of Verdi and Gounod with the 20th century of Korngold and Richard Strauss. All of the pieces were championed by the Divas of the past, some of them come from operas that are still very popular today (Tosca & Il Trovatore), many others are from operas that have been forgotten. Renée Fleming rediscovers these "lost jewels" - including arias by Cilea, Smetana, and Rimsky-Korsakov - that were big hits during their time and now presents them for a new generation.
For this passionate, richly orchestrated repertoire, the role of the orchestra is enormously important and Renée is joined by the acclaimed Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre under their music director Valery Gergiev.
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