RenéeFleming
Stockholm, August 2008
The 17th Polar Music Prize Ceremony was held in August 2008 at Konserthuset Stockholm. Renée Fleming shared the Laureate spotlight with legendary band Pink Floyd.
Renée Fleming attended together with her mother Patricia Fleming as her honorary guest.
Peter Gelb, The Metropolitan's General Manager read the citation for Renée Fleming at the ceremony.
The Winner of the 2003 Guildhall School of Music och Drama's Gold Medal Competition, soprano Susanna Andersson and contralto Anna Larsson performed to honour Renée Fleming, together with The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Other artists performing were Freddie Wadling, Frida Öhrn, Joey Tempest from Europe, Titiyo and Andreas Kleerup.
Renée Fleming on stage at Konserthuset Stockholm.
With HM King Carl XVI Gustaf and Roger Waters from Pink Floyd.
Musical Education
Renée Fleming grew up in Rochester, New York. Her parents were both teachers of singing and music formed part of her upbringing. During the early 1980s she studied at the State University of New York at Potsdam and the Eastman School of Music, which gave her both theoretical and voice technique basis. At the American Opera Center at the Juilliard School, she met voice teacher and soprano Beverley Peck Johnson (1904–2001), who has been an important figure throughout her career and to whom she stayed close until Johnson's death in 2001.
Fleming also got the possibility to go to Europe on a Fulbright Scholarship, where she studied lieder with Arleen Auger.
Arleen Auger (Source: Polydor)
Debut
1988 marked Renée Fleming's official debut when she won the Met National Council Auditions and the George London Prize in the same week. That same year she also made her major debut as The Countess in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Houston Grand Opera. Her New York City Opera debut came in 1989 and she finally entered the prestigious Metropolitan stage once again as The Countess, stepping in for Felicity Lott.
Detail of the unfinished portrait of Mozart, one of Renée Fleming's favorites, by Joseph Lange. (Source: Joseph Lange)
The Great Opera Roles
Opera as it is known today first appeared in Italy at the end of the 16th century. It soon spread through the rest of Europe where each country established their own national traditions of composition and musical themes during the 17th century. Italy and Germany dominated the opera scene during the 18th century, and by the end of the 18th century, Mozart renewed the genre by making comic operas that have become major references within classic music in the western musical tradition, such as Le Nozze Di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte.
Music Sheet for Don Giovanni
The classic operas all have classic roles often attributed to the opera stars of the moment and, among others, the Countess in Le Nozze Di Figaro has become the signum of Renée Fleming. Other roles for which she has won acclaim are Handel's Alcina and Rodelinda; Rossini's Armida, Violetta, Manon, Thaïs, Tatyana, and Rusalka; and numerous roles in Strauss operas.
Violetta's costume for the premiere of "La Traviata", 1853 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Mimi's costume for Act I of "La bohème" for the world premiere performance, Teatro Regio di Torino, 1 February 1893 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
New creations
In the 1990s Renée Fleming also participated in creating new roles for modern opera, setting the standards for the roles. In 1994, Laclos' epistolary novel “Dangerous Liaisons” was adapted into opera, with Fleming as the creator and first performer of the role of the pious Madame de Tourvel.
“The Ghosts of Versailles”, with a plot mixing Beaumarchais' “La mère coupable” and historical facts from the French Revolution, was commissioned by the Metropolitan and premiered in 1991, with Renée Fleming as the character of Rosina.
Recording of "The Ghosts of Versailles" from The Metropolitan Opera. (Source: )
Another role composed by Fleming for its first performance is Blanche DuBois from Tennessee Williams' modern classic "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1998, composed by André Previn with a libretto by Philip Littell. The opera premiered at the San Francisco Opera on September 19, 1998.
Renée Fleming and André Previn in conversation. (Source: Carnegie Hall)
The voice
"America's beautiful voice", has a devoted international following wherever she appears, whether on the operatic stage, in concert or recital, on television, radio or on disc. 1999 brought a Grammy Award for her Decca recording The Beautiful Voice which follows honours as 1997 American Vocalist of the Year and L'Académie du Disque Lyrique in 1996.
Sir Georg Solti, who conducted Renée Fleming's first solo aria recording for Decca, described the impact of her singing; "Quite apart from the sheer lyrical beauty of voice, she has an innate musicianship which makes every performance a great joy.
Her catalogue has grown during the 00s and she now has a solid catalogue covering both opera recordings and popular music. In 2005 Renee Fleming released her first book, with a wish to write not a classic opera singer’s memoirs but more aiming at telling the story of her voice; she calls her book “the autobiography of my voice.”
Her voice has the main role, focusing more on opera and singing techniques than on stories from behind the opera scenes.
Viking/The Penguin Group © Renée Fleming
Opera Selection
Stepping out of the classics
One of Renée Fleming's signum is to step out of the classic world and explore different genres outside the opera framework. Her two albums Haunted Heart (2005) and Dark Hope (2010) are the results of looking outside the more traditional field and into soul, jazz and rock, still working with her characteristic warm tone and voice register.
These genre crossings might have contributed to the description of her as "the people's diva", approaching classic music in a modern, very available way, and interpreting pop music in a more classic way.
Portrait by Andrew Eccles. (Source: Decca)
The People's Diva
Renée Fleming is known for the intensity and integrity of her dramatic portrayals and her engaging stage presence. She is both an impressive stage character and a sincere and down to earth personality with a great passion for music and how to interpret it.
Renée Fleming and Christian Thielemann at the Munich Gasteig, 2008. Photo by Andreas Praefcke, via Wikimedia Commons.
Official Soundtrack of "Lord of the rings" where Renée Fleming interpreted several pieces.
Awards & Tributes
Besides being the Polar Music Prize Laureate of 2008, Renée Fleming is involved in the Polar Music Prize as a member of the international award committee. In September 2008, Ms. Fleming became the first woman in the 125-year history of the Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala.
Among the soprano’s numerous awards are Honorary Membership in the London Royal Academy of Music (2000), the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (2005), and the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Republic of France (2002). In 2010, she was named the first ever Creative Consultant at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Fleming was awarded the 2012 The German ECHO Awards "Singer of the Year" for her Decca/Universal album Poèmes, featuring music of Ravel, Messiaen, and Dutilleux.
French medal of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.
Renée Fleming tastes the dessert she inspired to for the first time.
In 1999, Master Chef Daniel Boulud created the very special celebration dessert “La Diva Renée” (1999) in Renée Fleming's honor for his restaurant Daniel in New York. In 2004 an iris was named after her, "the Renée Fleming Iris" that also inspired the Boehm Studio to do its replica in porcelain.
(Source: reneefleming.com)
Content of biography is presented here as it was published in 2012.
Header photo by Baldur Bragason.
All photos from the ceremony and banquet by Emma Svensson, © Polar Music Prize.
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Marie Ledin
Managing Director
marie.ledin@polarmusicprize.org
Alfons Karabuda
Chairman of the Polar Music
Prize Award Committee
alfons@polarmusicprize.org
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