Renee Fleming Wows Honolulu

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 2:21pm

"Shimmering Voice Transcends Rain":

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Mar/26/ln/FP603260349.html

And they needed it there with over forty days of rain!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 4:03pm

That is why the place is so lush & gorgeous

We were there in 2003 & very little rain. When we went to ireland in 2000 it only rained the last (10 th) day. That is unheard of

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 4:10pm

While Hawaii is a tropical rainforest, it is very unusual to have so much rain. About the most you ever get there is two, three or a few days of it. And rarely you will get a two-week rain.

But it's been like 41 days or more with flooding, etc., even deaths. They don't get monsoon weather in Hawaii so that's startling. Supposed to stop soon.

It's not easy to sing in humidity. Pavarotti hated the effect of the humidity there on his voice, and then it was only balmy and not a big rain. So I think that says a lot of Fleming's talent, that she could deliver despite the weather.

And three encores!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 4:18pm

And by the way, if you can catch a performance by Renee as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, her mad scene is incredible.

I saw her do it at the Met.

[Sorry-correction-it was Ruth Ann Swenson's mad scene, I saw Fleming's Manon and that was wonderful. Thank you, Sister Rose, for keeping things accurate.] Updated On: 4/8/06 at 04:18 PM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 6:23pm

if she really wants rain, she needs to go to Kaua'i.......or the Hilo side of the Big Island.......

[Sister Rose]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 9:28am

HI - just taking an opportunity to respond to your comment about Renee's "Lucia" - unfortunately she hasn't done Lucia di Lammermore at the Met or anywhere else (unless she was under an assumed name or somewhere really regional or in school).

These are her previous operas in no particular order (and not necessarily at the Met):

Il Pirata
La Straniera
Carmen
La Dame Blanche
Peter Grimes
Louise
Medée
The Ghosts of Versailles
Lucrezia Borgia
Rusalka
Susannah
Faust
Alcina
Jenufa
Hérodiade
Manon
Thäis
Abduction from the Seraglio
The Marriage of Figaro
La Finta Gardiniera
Don Giovanni
Così fan tutte
Idomeneo
The Magic Flute
A Streetcar Named Desire
Rosmonda d'Inghilterra
La Bohème
Manon Lescaut
Platee
Armida
Arabella
Der Rosenkavalier
Eugene Onegin
Il viaggio a Reims
Otello
Simon Boccanegra
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Capriccio
Rodelinda
La Traviata
Lulu
Elijah
Don Giovanni
Daphne


"Lucia" is a bel canto role and she didn't even record it on her "Bel Canto" album. I just saw her "Manon" and oh my God - it's perfection!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 10:54am

And by the way, if you can catch a performance by Renee as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, her mad scene is incredible.

I saw her do it at the Met.

Really? I am sure she was fabulous!

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 11:02am

Sister Rose - you left out a concert performance of "La Sonnambula" with OONY in 1992(?).

She's a great singer and quite a nice lady - her Tatiana next season could be definitive.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 11:27am

I'm just waiting for her to play Mimi in RENT.

[kjklo]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 11:36am

Nom was probably remembering the time he saw Lily Pons in 1931, and just got temporarily confused.

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 11:43am

Lily Pons - who could ever forget her Marie in Fille or her Lucia!

Or that "hit in the face with a bat" look when she would hit her high notes! Nothing moved and this was pre-Botox!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 12:55pm

Hmmm

I will look into it...

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 1:09pm

It was Ruth Ann Swenson.

I do confuse the two.

I remember watching Fleming perform at the Met and thinking it was Swenson and getting corrected by the Russian lady sitting next to me who knew her opera. I am a latecomer to loving opera and I don't know or recognize everybody.

They are both wonderful singers.
Updated On: 4/8/06 at 01:09 PM

[hannahshule]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 1:17pm

Although I think Renee has a wonderful voice, i've never really been a huge fan of hers, i don't really know why though. i like Ruth Ann though, but Angela Gheorghiu has got to be my favorite.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 1:27pm

They are both quite beautiful:

Renee Fleming:

http://www.renee-fleming.com/

Ruth Ann Swenson:

http://www.associatedentertainment.com/aec/National-Acts/Music-Category-1/Ruth-Ann-Swenson

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 1:40pm

manon with fleming is on 96.3 as we speak.

[hannahshule]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 1:43pm

95.3 I think you mean.

I've always thought Renee Flemming and Katie Couric look like each other.

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 1:54pm

Having heard her do Manon in the house twice - I'm a bit taken aback how under-powered she sounds these days(something I noticed this fall at both the "Manon" and the Carnegie "Daphne"). The scoops seem to be under control but it's only been a half hour and the most difficult music is coming up.

Let's see if she wows New York like she wowed the opera capital of the world, Honolulu.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/8/06 at 2:05pm

Honolulu has no claim, as you know, to being any opera capital of the world, small island chain that it is out in the Pacific.

However, there is Hawaii Opera Theatre which puts on three operas a year at the 2500-some seat Blaisdell Concert Hall with the Honolulu Symphony, which is a luxury for a small community. This draws in opera singers from other places. And we do have some fine opera singers who live there. The Hawaii audiences are very warm to performers and they love music and singers. The Hawaiian performers are well-known for their fine voices and musicianship. There are various Polynesian singers who sing and have sung opera.

I think it is wonderful that world class opera singers such as perform at the Met would travel all the way out to remote Honolulu to perform and share their talent. Updated On: 4/8/06 at 02:05 PM

Posted: 4/8/06 at 5:10pm

god love her for it-she came to Brisbane, Australia for a concert as well, and got 7 encores.
Renee did "Lulu"?

[Sister Rose]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 7:22am

www.reneefleming.com is Renee's official Decca site. Unfortunately, www.renee-fleming.com isn't updated regularly. There's a good yahoo fan group called The Beautiful Voice - they get into great discussions about opera and broadway, etc. I love many great singers but Renee is my favorite opera diva. In that world, there is nobody nicer than she is, in my humble opinion. I have been backstage many times and have seen her at various events that she wasn't even a part of and she came up to me like I was a friend of hers. I was at Manon on Saturday and it was glorious. I am really looking forward to next season's "Eugene Onegin" at the Met - indeed, her Tatiana will be breathtaking. I really became an opera fan because I saw Renee performing on various television shows.

[leadfootlouie]

Posted: 4/11/06 at 8:23am

Rose,

I would say the Manon was indeed v.good but only in moments. There were Major Pitch Problems in the gavotte on the D's.

That's the second time she's had trouble that I've heard her

It may be she just has out grown the role.

But then she is booked for ARMIDA, of all things, in 2010, so she better have those D's and E's..and passagework!

otherwise, there were wonderful moments.

And please let's nor confuse atristry with graciousness. Callas was as gracious as a lump of coal and she re-invented opera as we know it today.

Updated On: 4/11/06 at 08:23 AM