“mi” a name to call herself?
Just texted to La Cieca:
Am at Philharmonic dress. Her Messiaen was luminous. Far the best thing I’ve heard her do.
Which is excellent, brava, you go on like this. But, La Cieca being La Cieca, you know she is going to harp on this little gem:
Known as “the people’s diva,” she continues to grace the world’s greatest opera stages and concert halls, now extending her reach to include other mediums.
70: Indeed, you are correct. I find the c-word so incredibly offensive, I didn’t read Vox 60′s response carefully.
Re: Fleming, in Matheopoulos’ second book of interviews with sopranos and mezzos, the author refers to Renee’s “discouraging” masterclass experience with Schwarzkopf (in 1986?) that left her self-esteem in tatters. She took at least a year to feel confident enough to do well in auditions and, yes, a therapist was visited (at the recommendation of her voice teacher).
@66 – Lindoro, not sure you caught my drift re: Battle
If Renee is indeed an insecure person then that just endears me to her all the more. Look at what this “insecure” person has accomplished. It’s amazing. If she struggled with depression and insecurity like some claim then I applaud her for going out there night after night and submitting herself to the wolves.
Dimples of steel, tinney, dimples of steel.
Sorry I do not mean to be making assumptions. I have heard this from singers themselves, but, it could just be that they were saying it to protect themselves, or that the situation is different for different singers.
I should have said “I have heard from some singers with recording contracts and PR agencies this that and the other thing” !
I suppose int he case of singers like Fleming and Gheorghiu, their PR is so stomach turning that one would prefer to think they have no control over it!
The idea that anyone would OK the writing that they “grace the stage” anywhere is not a flattering one
The comments about the repertoire I think were meant for someone else. I thought the program sounded interesting.
People have mentioned the French soprano Francoise Pollet. Besides the recordings of Les Hugenots and that exquisite recording of rare French Arias (what gems!),she did a darn good La Voix Humaine by Poulenc. Live,I saw her do Berloz’s Damnation of Faust with John Aler under Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Katleen Battle’s vocal troubles were even showing when she did the Spirituals Concert at Carnegie Hall with Jesseye Norman.
Please don’t metion Ms Battle in the same breath as Renee Fleming . The only possible parallel between the two that I can see: Battle could have stepped straight into Previn’s Streetcar Named Desire without any prior rehearsals for character development of Ms Blanche Du Bois and her ‘off with the pixies’ nature. On that score, Battle missed a golden opportunity….. to shine, to be able to give an award winning performance. Forget the singing!
I have that Matheopoulos book mentioned in # 71 (DIVA: THE NEW GENERATION). I recall in Fleming’s interview she said she felt that her voice did not have the Italianate edge needed for Puccini roles: she was speaking specifically of Mimi, which she sang for her NYCO debut and dropped from her repertoire shortly thereafter. So I find it interesting that she has now recorded a whole disc of verismo arias–though certainly it’s not the first time she’s recorded material she wouldn’t sing onstage. I look forward to listening to the recording and hearing what she does with it, though I do love my Diana Soviero verismo disc.
#71, the Matheopoulos reference coincides well with my recollection of the content of the early Smithsonian article on Fleming — she even comtemplated giving up singing entirely, as I recall, and yes, did have to resort to therapy to overcome the depression, according to the article. I hadn’t heard the Schwarzkopf master class story, but I was at two Schwarzkopf master classes in the early 80s, and I can only too well understand how she could have easily crushed a fragile ego. Most singers couldn’t get through a bar of music before getting stopped. They only singer she let sing an entire piece with no comment was Gail Dubinbaum — she just turned to the audience at the end, shrugged her shoulders, raised her eyebrows, and gestured to Dubinbaum. So she wasn’t mean, she was just really blunt and formidable. I remember one soprano getting up to sing one of Strauss’s Four Last Songs, and Schwarzkopf soon stopped her and said, “Are you sure you should be singing this? Because I don’t think your voice would carry over an orchestra.” Ouch.
I suspect the reason the Renee haters are such a force here: is because ‘where has she given you reason to hate her’?. What no tirades?, no arguments?, no ripped up contracts?,no line of cancellations? no record of absenteeism from rehearsal?
La Cieca has to work really hard overtime, to invent something…. like Louella P. or Hedda H. used to do for Hollywood. Angela G & Lasagna , Netrebko’s ‘bubble’ or Villazon’s vocal repeated crashes were after all, copy – made easy in opera gossip Heaven!