To be sure, it’s been only nine years, but it certainly feels much longer
“In addition to her work on stage and in recordings, Renée Fleming has represented Rolex timepieces in print advertising since 2001. Master Chef Daniel Boulud has created the dessert ‘La Diva Renée’ (1999) in her honor, and she has inspired the ‘Renée Fleming Iris’ (2004), which has been replicated in porcelain by Boehm.
“Having been added to Mr. Blackwell’s best dressed list in 2001, her gowns have been designed by Gianfranco Ferré, Issey Miyake, Bill Blass, Vivienne Westwood, Angel Sanchez, Oscar de la Renta, John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, and Karl Lagerfeld.” [voiceofthecentury.net (NSFW: autoplays verismo!)]
“Having been added to Mr. Blackwell’s best dressed list in 2001, her gowns have been designed by …”
The syntax of that exquisitely crafted sentence suggests that her her gowns have been added to the ‘best dressed’ [no hyphen] list. Hmmm, a best-dressed gown.
And Renee is (so the blurb tells us) an advocate for literacy. Maybe she should demand personal approval of all her blurbs. After all, The Inner Voice was pretty well written.
… and please excuse my repetition of ‘her’ in the first line of para two.
Those who blame La Cieca for her repeated references to the horror that is Renée’s publicity should blame the publicity instead. It is surely the duty of our doyenne to alert us to these atrocities, which studies reveal as a chief cause of acid reflux among sensitive opera-lovers.
Don’t find a way to pick on her! Why Fleming was not invited to sing at the Tucker Gala? Who is who on the Met’s roster was there, even Guleghina! Did anybody attend, and how was the singing?
I think she’s just resting now after the recital tour in Europe. She is a mom after all. I don’t think she’s been home with her daughters since October so she’s probably getting some much needed rest over the holidays with them. She has a lot of recitals planned for December and of course there is Der Rosenkavalier (in HD). She’ still on the Met’s who is who roster and she has engagements booked until 2017. I think she can miss the Tucker Gala this year without sinking into oblivion. Besides, they aren’t even broadcasting or televising it this year!
Im just curious-who is booking eight years in advance now?
I wonder how many Rolex watches La Phlegmming has in her wardrobe. The same might be asked about Domingo. I’d prefer black glamma everwhere.
I wonder how many scoops are in that dessert? Ouch!
This is what it looks like:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DimeX-nxhCI/SGN4a6ReeMI/AAAAAAAACBU/6KjRYBA8QIY/s400/NDVD_001.JPG
What are those little balls? Are they scoops of something?
Ironically, I don’t think there are any scoops in this. But it looks like you do get to bite Renee’s head off if you want to.
Would that bearded figure on top be Isaac Hayes ??
Why am I not surprised that even the dessert is overdone and mannered? LOL
No, that bearded figure is supposed to be Renee Fleming. It’s actually a cute picture, but in chocolate her adorable smile does kind of look like a beard.
http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V61N2/photos/f6-02.JPG
Now if she could just sing ‘as good’ as Nellie Melba, all would be complete.
Forget Melba, it’s all about Joan Sutherland. Now, she is has earned her voice of the century status.
What dessert has been named for Dame Joanie, javier? Slip me the receipt some time soon!
Well, they named a performing arts center after her in Sydney. I think that trumps a dessert.
Not necessarily, javier. A dessert can make people feel good anywhere in the world. Each kitchen can serve as a shrine to Melba. Not so with a performing arts center named after Dame J.
Well, “not necessarily”…
Don’t make me laugh!
Tetrazzini was probably the greatest coloratura soprano of the century and she has a chicken dish named after her. This voice of the century business is just silly contemporary hype. Good heavens, even Steber was better than Fleming.
What do you mean “even” Steber? Fleming is not even in the same league as Steber. All the evidence you need is one recording — the two-disc set of her Carnegie recital just *after* Bing let her go. Unlike Renée, who has a whole machine, including the Met, behind her, Steber went out there and relied only on her singing to bestow legendary thrills. Never has a Salon des Refusés triumphed more greatly.
And she had made her Met debut and became a star at an age when Renée, worthy as she is, was still a student. Of course her personal life was not under the kind of control that Renée’s seems to be, which is a great credit to the one and a great pity for the other.
Hmmm. I dion’t know much about Steber. I’ll check out some of her recordings. I love a good backstory almost as much as I love a good voice.
I’m a big fan of Steber. There’s a wonderful Traviata from the Met recorded in 1949. It captures Di Stefano at the height of his vocal powers and also has Merrill as Germont. I haven’t heard it in ages (must remember to put it on my ipd) but as I recall, Steber has everything one would want from a great Violetta.
thanks, kashania. Traviata is one of my favorites. I’ll look for that specific recording to add to my little stack of Traviatas.
The 1949 Traviata bdcst witih Steber has been avail. in Canada on
Naxos, in reasonably good radio sound and I recommend it. Steber and Merrill are a good match; alas, diStefano is a bit of a pip-squeak
against Steber, and their duets are, well — a bit odd. Try Steber’s
oratorio arias from around 1950 (maybe her best work, ever), and her Les Nuits d’ete of 1954. Some of the 1940s 78rpm transfers, mainly Mozart arias, are pretty good. The Mozart recordings from about 1949-50 with Bruno Waltercaught her not on a good day; the voice is a bit sticky and over-miked. Try to hear the 1948 Depuis le Jour, Walter Susskind conducting an HMV pick-up orchestra in London, especially the first few pages, which are all arc and spin — her great gift: the rising legato. I have not much use for the CBS Butterfly or the Carnegie Hall recital as the voice is often hard pressed, and under those circumstances she could experience a fast bleaty tremolo that is not so swell. The VAI cassette tapes, many of them now on DVD, from Firestone hour are an excellent way to learn about Steber — some wonderful some not so. The Pagliacci Ballatella, not a role for her on stage, is wondrous, especially compared to Albanese’s offering of same that was in the same Firestone series.
Her recording of Faust shows her quite well, as does the Bayreuth Lohengrin — maybe her vocal peak — 1953. After about 1955 it was touch and go, the English-language Arabella at the Met her last really prime time work. Eleanor thought she could sing anything, and others agreed with her; unfortunately as the lifestyle took its toll and the years rolled by she never quit trying, but don’t let the lesser results obscure the fact she was a sensational lyric soprano from 1940 to 1955, not a bad record. The 1954 Donna Elvira, sometimes heard on Sirius radio, is very much worth hearing — Steber sings a breathtakingly wonderful Mi tradi – wow! She was a better Elvira than Anna; her Annas from 1953-4 are fine, though; but after 1956, it did not go as well.
I would disagree that Fleming is not in Steber’s league; indeed she is, though in different repertory. Steber could not sing Handel as well as Fleming did, nor such roles as Thais or the Dvorak. Fleming could not handle Donna Anna or Elsa with the vocal panache that Steber brought to them. Plenty of room for both in my world. Neither Steber or Fleming is a Marschallin to my taste – voices too light in the mid range, and personalities not right. I think you really need a native command of the German language to sing Marschallin.
thanks, mrmyster, for your detailed list and assessment of the various Steber recordings out there. I just checked Arkiv and Amazon. The Steber Traviata isn’t available, except as a used import (and for $25, much more than I would expect for a Naxos recording). However, I DID find a couple of Steber recitals on Vai, and on one she sings two of Violetta’s arias (no prizes for guessing which two). This might have to satisfy me until the Naxos becomes available again in the US.
But thanks to your suggestions, I have other recordings to investigate.
CruzSF, you can take a listen here:
http://www.lala.com/album/1009087791584652176
It’s 1949, so you’re not missing much with the MP3.
Naxos also has that live 1949 TRAVIATA on their streaming site, but it’s blocked in the U.S. Boo. They do provide this review, though:
Jed Distler
ClassicsToday.com, March 2001
“For the most part, a vocal feast awaits you, broadcast live from the Met on January 22, 1949… The principals in this marvelous La Traviata are captured in their exultant primes. As Violetta, Eleanor Steber can do anything. Verdi’s florid writing fazes her not one bit: she brings fluid defiance to Sempre Libera’s quick, downward phrases, and instills Verdi’s long lyrical lines with ravishing, floating colors. Robert Merrill is a freer, more supple Germont than his driven portrayal in the famed Toscanini broadcast two years earlier, with just as huge a sonority. Heard in his first Met Alfredo, Giuseppi di Stefano fares best in the first act, and becomes increasingly erratic as he pushes his tone for effect, and causes a few small but noticeable derailments in Act 3 when he loses his place in the score. Still, you can’t deny that his voice is a force of nature. On the podium, Giuseppe Antonicelli takes the mishaps in stride, and elicits alert orchestral results that never smack of routine. A grab bag of Steber excerpts from opera, operetta, and Broadway, culled from live and commercial sources, fills out Disc 2.”
Just listened to Steber on Lala. Wow, she really takes Sempre Libera at a fast clip. It definitely sounds to me like a Violetta who’s trying to convince herself of her own words.
don’t forget Steber singing Barber’s Knoxville 1915. . .
And you have to love a woman who sang a recital at the COntinental Baths.
Steber, too? Midler. Farrell. My god, who DIDN’T sing at the baths during my youth?
Never heard of Farrell doing it. Are you sure?
Alto, I thought I’d read that Farrell had sung at the baths at some point. I must have mixed up this diva with that diva. Forgive me.
Uh huh, and the Juilliard School fired Steber
from her teaching job because of her
appearance at the baths. Not a good
trade-off. Genuine dignity eluded the
poor woman.
I suspect our doyen is jealous, because Renee’ is not loaning her some of her designer gowns.
Probably didn’t get sent a complimentary bottle of Renee’s scent, either. We know how humiliated, La Cieca must feel.
We know how humiliated, La Cieca must feel.
Harry, you didn’t get a complimentary bottle of “La Voce” either?
I use mine as a bathroom air-freshener.
The only complimentary bottle I saw was on its way out the door as a “re-gift.”
The bottle of perfume that Willy sent
Was highly displeasing to Millicent.
Her thanks were so cold,
They quarreled, I’m told,
Over the silly scent Willy sent Millicent.
You have to admire someone who first takes the trouble to correct an insignificant typo and then offers us a witty limerick – thanks!
CruzSF; Most of the new scents today that come accompanying the name of some pop bimbo : smell like stray obnoxious fumes from a chemical factory.Decades ago they were classic , exotic but non threatening. Today most modern scents – once smelt, represent some aggressive ‘ball cutter’ on the desperate make of some cents, is close by. To observe and watch the ‘male drips’ muzzle up to THAT……jeez!
That must be why I like the natural musk of a man.
If you can smell a man, and he’s not wearing cologne, then he needs to shower because he stinks.
So not true. At least not true in all cases. I’ve smelled me some pretty hot men in my day.
La Voce? Surely it is also meant to be a wonderful throat gargle. Something that Renee’ called for, to habe the added ingredients – to aid those other sopranos less fortunate of voice, than her!
Perhaps we will see more extra operatic enterprise. What about a Angela brand of pouting lipstick , an Anna brand of genuine ready to eat Borscht or Stephanie’s hour glass magic corset.
It all depends on which century (and which millenium) the “singer of the century” refers to. So if Renee is the voice of the 20th century, well I don’t think she would make the top ten but maybe she is the voice of the 21st? Really doesn’t leave us much to look forward to…
CruzSf: I used to shock some people. I spoke of how if I entered a house where women were completely absent. I detected and was then intoxicated by the ‘healthy smell of man’ in the air. It is really identifiable if one is conscious of the phenomenon. I admit discussing such attributes in mixed polite company, would not impress too many.
Maybe we should slap a big ole “OT Warning” from here on out.
One can scarce imagine Joan Hammond touting salad cream or Walter Midgely lending his image to peddle lozenges.
Indeed not; one can scarcely imagine anybody bothering to ask them.
And did you mean Midgley, by the way…?
8. You must have been drunk — or had your head otherwise engaged — at the Baths — that was MIKE Farrell.
http://dumbfoundedone.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/mike-farrell.jpg
As a side track for a moment; who else has heard Bryn Terfel new disc ‘Bad Boys’?.
Everything from Iago’s Credo , Barber of Seville, Threepenny Opera, Faust to Mefistofele. Slightly correct in the titling….it is just plain bad…Terfel doing a portrait of himself , singing at his worst standard, possible.. Rating : Extremely Monotonous.
Harry, don’t you always feel that Bryn is more of a bully than bad? And his vibrato has gone all gurgly over the past few years.
I forgot to add (if people are thinking of opera stars and connection to advertising endorsements )’Who has smoked a Jean De Reszke cigarette? I have.
The REAL question is, which designer wants to take credit (or blame) fo Angela Gheorghiu’s gowns:
http://angelagheorghiu.com/gallery/stage/929/
Admittedly they are not ALL in that vein:
http://angelagheorghiu.com/gallery/stage/937/
When does the worst dressed list come out? Is there still time to get a nomination in??
I saw her wearing that very dress (929) at a concert the Royal Festival Hall a month ago – she also poured herself in two even more hideous creations: a black Halloweeny number and a red strapless job. The evening was originally billed as a solo concert, then she added James Valenti to the mix..and then of course cancelled. Valenti was not free for the alternative date, and she offered us a completely forgettable little Romanian tenor instead. But I forgave her because she sang “Pleurez, pleurez mes yeux” and gave four times as many encores as La Fleming.
Definitely needs more gay friends.
This is one of the meager encores La Fleming gave for her last concert:
“In that vein” is a most appropriate expression when discussing Draculette, is it not?
Guys (Gals?),
The Steber Traviata (and all the other Naxos Met broadcasts) are easily obtained from the UK. Try MDT or Europadisc. Both give excellent service and charge only $3.00 to say $5.00 for shipping. The Steber Traviata is currently on sale at Europadisc for @$10.00!
http://www.europadisc.co.uk/ or
http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/pages/home/default.asp
I cannot access comments beyond #16 or the first page. Does anybody else have the same problem?
Monty Nostry(18.1# comment.) Regarding Bryn Tefel: presently, what I find most noticeable is the lack of weight, the inability to project menace (if called for)or suggest a voice with glint of black steel or coal. A good litmus test : if one listens to the Iago’s Credo (Otello) on that new Terfel ‘Bad Boys’ CD, one is shocked. One, only has to vividly remember the likes of Gobbi, on that Serafin complete recording with Vickers/Rysanek and the problem is as plain a mud. Ditto: Terfel’s Scarpia (Tosca) contribution, his Sweeney Todd excerpt etc etc. He is fast becoming the baritone version of a Bocelli. An operatic- entertainer type for the non discerning.
The CD is what I would call ‘a stinker’.
P,S The pathetic woman used in the Sweeney Todd excerpt as Mrs Moffat makes its original star Angela Lansbury, appear a interpretative Callas by comparison!
I luckily do not own the CD. I heard it repeatedly played complete, over & over on a all night digital radio channel. The dream that was once held that he was set for stardom as a ‘Wagnerian’ I think we can now put to rest, once and for all
The Steber Traviata was broadcast by Sirius a few weeks ago and will likely be broadcast again. Easy to tape it off the air.
Thanks for that heads-up, iltenoredigrazia.