Renee fleming bio biography john williams

Renee Fleming is among the most widely admired American singers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. She has a wide variety of roles in her repertoire, and works to maintain a balance between Mozart roles, such as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, with heavier ones such as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, in order to preserve both nuance and power in her voice.

Fleming's parents were both high school vocal music teachers, and she describes her mother's influence as that of the "classic stage mother"; she was made to sing in any musical function that came up.

Where does renée fleming usually sing

While she dislikes the fact that singing became a chore, she later found the discipline that it instilled to be useful to her as a professional. In , she graduated from State University of New York at Potsdam with a degree in music education, and continued her musical studies at the Eastman School of Music, which she credits with giving her a strong academic and theoretical background as well as continued vocal training.

From to , she was enrolled in the American Opera Center at Juilliard, where she met Beverley Johnson, the voice teacher with whom she would continue to study throughout her career. Fleming also recalls with admiration the year she spent studying lieder with Arleen Auger, on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Tim jessell net worth

Singing Constanze, one of the most difficult roles in the soprano repertoire, made her recognize that her vocal technique still needed work, as did her self-confidence to perform in public. The Countess became her calling card, and she made her San Francisco debut later that year in the same role, as well as her Vienna State Opera and Glyndebourne debuts.

Since that time, Fleming has been in constant demand in opera houses worldwide. The combination of vocal beauty, stylistic versatility and uncommon commitment to dramatic portrayal has worked to make her an instant draw anywhere she appears. An appearance in Verdi's Otello or in Handel's Alcina is likely to be equally satisfying -- the same cannot be said for many singers.