Our premier diva. Some of you may have seen her perform the national anthem at last night's Super Bowl:
Renée Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano whose repertoire encompasses Richard Strauss, Mozart, Handel, bel canto, lieder, French opera and chansons, jazz and indie rock.[1] Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.[2] Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also speaks fluent German and French, along with limited Italian. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, the title role in Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, the title role in Richard Strauss's Arabella, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and the Countess in Capriccio.
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Conductor Sir Georg Solti said of Fleming, "In my long life, I have met maybe two sopranos with this quality of singing; the other was Renata Tebaldi."[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
To my untrained ear, her voice sounds superb. Certainly you don't need to be an opera buff to recognize the control she has. Exquisite:
That Wiki link above the fleur-de-kos has lots of info about her background as a student (she sang jazz to supplement her income as a student of opera) and her subsequent career, including this tidbit:
Taking a rather different approach, in 2002 Fleming provided the vocals for Howard Shore's soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack. Her singing can be found in the songs "The End of All Things", "Twilight and Shadow" and "The Return of the King" (Original Soundtrack) and "The Grace Of Undómiel", "Mount Doom", "The Eagles" and "The Fellowship Reunited" (The Complete Recordings).
And she has a sense of humor. As Wiki put it:
Fleming has a notable sense of humor. She appeared on the children's show Sesame Street singing a lively rendition of "Caro nome" from Rigoletto, replacing the traditional Italian text with lyrics intended to aid children learning to count.
Singing David Letterman's Top Ten List:
Singing Puccini: