“The Stunning Voice™,” “The Folks’s Diva,” “La Scoopenda,” Ms. Renée Fleming graced us all together with her presence on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Saturday night courtesy of LA Opera’s recital sequence. On the victory lap of her 2023 Grammy win for “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene” which options Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the ivories.
She took the stage in a beautiful yellow-gold, naked shouldered (or showing as… because it might have been nude web and I forgot to convey my opera glasses) floor-length robe with lengthy sleeves and a few beautiful ruching across the knees that was nothing if not flattering. Whoever’s operating the light-board on the Buffy has been working extra time, fortunately, as a result of, beloveds, that live performance stage arrange is as outdated as I’m and desires all the assistance it could get. She moved with grace and appeared no older than forty-five. Tumultuous applause from the sold-out home ensued.
Now image La Diva Renée all cozy and tucked into her sofa in her stately manse in Virginia for movie-night with suo marito and saying, “Oh honey, let’s watch Soylent Inexperienced.” As a result of that, my dears, is most assuredly the genesis of this complete enterprise.
Solid your minds again to that seminal 1973 dystopian Chuck Heston starrer with Edward G. Robinson as a former faculty professor who’s so troubled by the state of society and earth’s doomed ecology he chooses state-sanctioned assisted suicide. They lay him out on a desk, give him a deadly cocktail, and present him a cinerama film of the earth’s former magnificence underscored by Beethoven, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky, et. al. as he passes. Considered one of my favourite bits of film trivia, which Ms. Fleming mentions in her program notes, is the truth that Edward G. Robinson was himself terminally sick on the time he made the movie and instructed nobody concerned with the manufacturing dying simply two months later.
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Ms. Fleming has herself been a particularly robust advocate for the results music has on our psychological state and has held common wellness symposiums right here at LA Opera and whereas touring and concertizing. As evidenced by her newest guide, Music and Thoughts: Harnessing the Arts for Well being and Wellness, which is a group of essays by scientists, musicians, and writers in regards to the therapeutic powers of the humanities. I can personally attest to the calming results of bashing my means by Elektra’s “Allein! Weh, ganz allein!” within the privateness of my front room once I’ve reached a 12 on the emotional scale. Donna Anna’s “Or sai chi l’onore” additionally works wonders. My neighbors have by no means complained.
So the entire first half of the night was accompanied by a movie of the glories of our pure world assembled for the event by the Nationwide Geographic Society. She launched the idea from the stage in the beginning and opened the live performance, appropriately, with Hazel Dickens’s “Fairly Fowl” which she sang utilizing the microphone she saved on her music stand. She then put the mic down and gave us a completely beautiful “Care selve” from Handel’s Atalanta. Not solely did she show definitively that she didn’t require digital amplification to be heard, however she trilled with such avidity that she sounded just like the tune fowl that wakes me up each morning in my neighborhood at 5am.
Nico Muhly’s “Countless Area” was a bit difficult to the ear on first listening to and Bjork’s “All is stuffed with love” truly gained extra from its lack of the voice-mirroring association it obtained on her business launch. Nonetheless, as she identified, there’s no lack of poetry in regards to the glories of nature within the tune literature. We received Canteloube, and Kevin Places very evocative “Night” amongst others. She even gave us Howard Shore’s “Twilight and Shadow” and I wish to personally thank whoever translated the supertitles from the unique Elvish.
The assembled movie actually confirmed some considerate development though its photographs appeared extra random than not at instances in comparison with the music they have been accompanying. Plus, it did appear a distraction from the precise performances that have been occurring on stage by Ms. Fleming and her supremely gifted accompanist Inon Barnatan.
Mr. Barnatan actually is aware of the artwork of accompanying and he has probably the most seamless legatos I feel I’ve ever heard from a pianist. Ms. Fleming discreetly moved to the facet of the piano in shadow so he might solo on Rachmaninoff. Within the second half, he gave us a completely beautiful “Jeux d’eau” by Ravel. I saved checking on the calls to see if he had the common variety of fingers on every hand his taking part in was so preternatural.
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She closed the primary half with a sing-along of Burt Bacharach’s “What the world wants now” and with a straight face, thoughts you.
For no matter purpose the introduced recorded opening of the second half with Jackson Browne’s “Earlier than the deluge,” which I do know nicely due to my rock & roll mom, by no means materialized and we went straight into Richard Strauss with “Standchen” and “Waldseligkeit” which discovered La Renée once more as a consummate vocal strategist. We then received a pairing of Reynaldo Hahn with contemplative performances of his “Les etoiles” and “L’heure exquise”.
Lastly we received an aria with the stunning farewell to that little desk from Massenet’s Manon which she rendered in her inimitable fashion, lavished with little vocal nuances and particular consideration to the textual content. After the Ravel piano solo, she gifted us with Adriana Lecouvreur’s entrance aria, the ending of which could have been deemed ‘cautious.’ Let’s not beat across the bush, beloveds: Ms. Fleming is similar age that Dame Nellie Melba was when she made her first farewell efficiency at Covent Backyard. My innate sense of discretion forbids I point out her age out loud (65). All night she displayed a prudent husbanding of sources. She will’t put her foot on the fuel the way in which she used to however there’s nonetheless loads of gasoline in that tank.
Then she instructed a hilarious story about Andrew Lippa writing a specialty quantity known as “The Diva” for her to carry out with Vanessa Williams at an occasion. She instructed Lippa later that she would want a brand new solo model written, “…Only for ME” and it was hilarious. The champagne lyric was, “Name me the diva, right here for the win. Who else might marshal an neutral Marschallin?”. She additionally joked that it was the closest she’d ever get to performing hip hop.
Her fastidiously rehearsed encore was Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” which was one other sing-along. Frankly I actually would have most well-liked the Handel.
Photograph (from a Boston efficiency): Robert Torres/Superstar Collection Boston
