| Renée Fleming sings bel canto
Renée Fleming's latest release on Decca is a splendid new recording of scenes from bel canto operas. Long admired for her mastery of the operas of Mozart and Strauss, Fleming returns to the music that inspired her to become a singer: the ineffably beautiful and poignant melodies of Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti. Each of these masters of 19th century opera is represented by two scenes on a disc made in the splendid acoustics of the Masonic Temple of New York with the Orchestra of St Luke's, conducted by Patrick Summers, Music Director of the Houston Grand Opera. Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Maria Padilla, Rossini's Armida and Semiramide and Bellini's La sonnambula and Il pirata showcase the virtuosity and emotional nuances of Fleming's expressive musical intelligence. It will come as a surprise to many who have followed Renée Fleming's more recent international career to learn that five of the six roles on this recording are characters she has created in complete performances. In fact, the early part of Fleming's career was dominated by bel canto opera, long before she became famous and admired for the music of Mozart and Strauss. So, it is with special joy that she returns to her first love. As she says: "I feel that bel canto is the very definition of everything that is great singing in that it requires the greatest accomplishment of all of the vocal repertoire. One has to have the line and beauty of tone required in Mozart with the added virtuosity of coloratura. I guess I am drawn to this repertoire because it presents the ultimate challenge." Fleming and conductor Patrick Summers approached this repertoire as an equal challenge since, as Summers says: "often dismissed as 'singer's opera', the orchestral timbre of these works is of vital importance and the challenge of finding the right balance of texture and rhythmic pliancy is one of the many rewards of this vast repertoire". This release, timed to coincide with Fleming's concert and staged productions of Il pirata in Paris and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, should prove a revelation to her newer fans and offer a welcome reminder to those who have followed her career. As Patrick Summers says: "Renée Fleming has that rare combination of vocal splendour and boundless musical imagination." |