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20 Min. w/Renée

By Robert Wilder Blue

Renée Fleming

Renée Fleming is the reigning queen of opera, its diva assoluta. She packs opera houses, sells thousands of recordings and earns armfuls of awards. Her current bio quotes one critic's accolade stating she is "an inspired scene painter, mood setter, storyteller, risk taker." Her repertory conquests range from the baroque to the brand-new and she can negotiate the treacherous waters of Bellini's Il Pirata as convincingly as she can soar on the long, lyrical lines of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. She has inspired a novel (Ann Patchett's Bel Canto) and a dessert (Daniel Boulud's La Diva Renée); she has appeared on television (60 Minutes, Charlie Rose, The Lehrer News Hour, The Today Show) and film (Alma Mahler in Bruce Beresford's Bride of the Wind); she is a spokesperson for Rolex; and she gets her name on lists: People's "25 Most Intriguing People" in 2000 and Mr. Blackwell's "best-dressed" of 2001. At a time when opera barely registers on the cultural radar scale and when a diva is more likely to be a teenage vamp whose primary talent is keeping her abs trim, Ms. Fleming carries on the tradition of a more glamorous era when there was such a thing as a prima donna.

Ms. Fleming was born on Valentine's Day in Indiana, Pennsylvania, which is located midway between Pittsburgh and Altoona and which takes pride in being the "Christmas Tree Capital of the World." Her parents were voice teachers; she told Opera News that hers was a "classic stage mother." She earned a living in college as a jazz singer. Her early years pursuing a career in opera took the usual route by way of America's regional opera houses. By the late eighties she had built a solid reputation in Mozart and had tackled to acclaim various bel canto rarities before the opera publics of New York, London and Pesaro. Major debuts followed at Covent Garden in London, Paris Opera, the Met, San Francisco, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Glyndebourne, La Scala, and Vienna State Opera, as did her first world premiere role, Rosina in Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles at the Metropolitan Opera (1991). By the time of her debut in 1993 with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the title role of Floyd's Susannah, Fleming had begun to turn heads. She spent the fall of 1994 with the San Francisco Opera, where she created the role of Madame de Tourvel in Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons and later appeared as Salome in a star-studded mounting of Massenet's Hérodiade. Her long march to the threshold of stardom culminated in the fall of 1995 with her first Metropolitan Opera opening night, on which she played Desdemona to Plácido Domingo's Otello. For her 1996-7 Met season, she sang Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, and the title role in Dvorak's Rusalka, and in doing so established herself as one of the company's leading stars.

Renée Fleming as Rosina in The Ghosts of Versailles (1991). Photo by Winnie Klotz/Metropolitan Opera

"A Shot Never Did a Coke Any Harm"

When San Francisco Opera went in search of a Blanche for its world premiere production of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, they found their ideal in Ms. Fleming. At the opera's September 19, 1998, premiere, she did not disappoint. Her portrayal of the vulnerable, volatile Blanche DuBois was emotionally honest and utterly convincing. She spun endless beauty from the score's soaring melodies (Previn had taken full advantage of her every asset in composing the role) and captured poignantly the character's complicated nature.

In June, 2003, Ms. Fleming will sing Blanche for the first time since creating the role. Maestro Previn will conduct two concert performances with the London Symphony Orchestra that reunite her with two original cast members, Rodney Gilfry as Stanley and Anthony Dean Griffey as Mitch. USOPERAWEB was anxious to know what Ms. Fleming had to say as she prepared to revisit the opera. We contacted her publicists and after a few days' wait were informed that Ms. Fleming would be delighted to give us 20 minutes on the telephone (one of a series of interviews she participated in that afternoon). Together, we attacked our subject head-on.

You are performing Streetcar for the first time since the premiere. After taking the time to learn such a difficult role, was it disappointing to sing only four performances in San Francisco?

"That does sound terrible when I look back. I think I was very focused on the process of creating the role and not thinking about what I would get out of the effort in a practical sense. The music was quite difficult. It took a lot more hours to learn than you'd imagine by listening to it. Andre's jazz background sneaks into his musical language and makes his music appear to be more accessible than it really is if you have to sit down and learn it. The role was so much longer than I had imagined. Honestly, I really didn't imagine anything going into it. But, I'm doing it again this summer and I would love to do it after that."

Have you encouraged other companies to do Streetcar?

"In a manner of speaking, yes-the London performances, absolutely. I would love to do it in Paris and New York. For me, it's about the very limited time I have available and the kinds of theaters I appear with-it's a small list at this point. I know the piece has been done a lot regionally and I haven't been involved in any of those productions. But I'm excited to do it again. Coming around again, it feels like it will be an entirely different experience. In San Francisco we had so little time-three-and-half weeks-to put the whole piece together and we were still scrambling to get it together musically until the last minute. So the second time around will offer an atmosphere a little bit more conducive to the drama. At least I hope it will."

When you're in the dressing room preparing to go onstage, is there a different level of energy or nervousness with a role like Blanche DuBois than with, say, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, a role you've performed many times?

Renée Fleming in the title role of Susannah (1993). Photo by Dan Rest/Lyric Opera of Chicago.

"You're asking that question of a singer who, like many of us, is quirky about the things that make me nervous. One might think that the Countess is a comfortable role for me both because I did it a lot and because it's Mozart and because the music is not particularly unusual or challenging on a purely musical basis. But in fact, the Countess is one of most difficult roles in my repertoire because of the two arias. The beauty of doing something like Streetcar is that there isn't the weight of past performances and interpretations on my shoulders. There is the freedom of creating something myself for the first time. In essence, it's a relief. The difficulty with Streetcar is the dramatic challenge it presents, which is enormous for anyone portraying Blanche DuBois. It's also in the length of the role and the stamina it takes. That is something, in doing it again, I am absolutely concerned with."

The classic film version of A Streetcar Named Desire is etched indelibly in peoples' minds. Did you worry about the risk of facing comparison to Vivian Leigh?

"Sure. But I didn't feel completely burdened by that in the way an actress would be, because the music gives a limit to what we can do. The entire interpretation-the entire presentation-of the opera had a lot more to do with Andre Previn than with me. Also, I didn't have the energy or the personal resources to worry about other performances of Blanche DuBois. It was all I could do to get through the words and the music and the blocking, all of that. We were just kind of surviving through those performances."

The San Francisco production was very naturalistic and called for some rather violent behavior onstage. Was it difficult to reach a point where you felt safe enough to allow Stanley (Rodney Gilfry) to throw you around?

"I don't find that sort of thing particularly difficult. It's exciting. It's much easier to do a scene with jagged edges-both dramatically and musically-than it is to do a reflective scene in which one feels very exposed."

When an opera is based on a well known literary source-a novel or a play-do you find it helpful to consult the original material, even if it differs somewhat?

"I find it extremely helpful. I always try to include the source material in my study. Inspiration is derived from many sources. They jog your imagination to fill in details that create a more real person, especially with a complex character like Blanche DuBois. This is why performances generally take on more value as they are repeated. Four performances is nothing, as you said. Most people in the theater are just getting into their previews. In opera, we don't have that luxury of repetition. By the same token, I find it incredible that an actor can perform the same role night after night for months. I have a girlfriend who's been singing Christine in Phantom of the Opera for eight years and every time I go to see her, it's fresh. I don't know how she has the discipline to do that."

Renée Fleming as Madame de Tourvel in The Dangerous Liaisons (1994). Photo by Marty Sohl/San Francisco Opera.

Is there a different critical expectation of new American operas than of those from the traditional European canon?

"When a piece has been in the repertory for a very long time people have had the opportunity to become familiar with it. A critic coming for the first time to a premiere cannot judge it on a single hearing. Composers today rarely get an opportunity to write more than one opera, maybe two, so they never become familiar to the public. Think of composer writing during the Romantic period, for instance. Rossini wrote, what, 40 operas? That's incomprehensible today."

There are many who feel that Streetcar becomes stronger with repeated viewings.

"I love the piece. I love Andre's music and the fact that he has a recognizable voice-a musical language that is uniquely his. That's the thing I most often see lacking in new music. I can hear something on the radio and I wouldn't have any idea who the composer is-it could be any number of people. That's a gift Andre has. I wish he had started writing operas earlier."

The months leading up to the premiere of Streetcar were difficult ones for you personally (a separation from your husband) and professionally (a trying rehearsal period and an anti-Fleming claque on the opening night of your La Scala Lucrezia Borgia). Is it hard to focus on your work during times such as these, or do music and the theater provide an escape of sorts?

"In general, the personal and the professional are married for me. If I'm having personal problems, I don't get away from them by going to the theater. If anything, what I do in the theater is exacerbated because I feel very unsettled. I have never been consistently a particularly happy performer. Performing has always been a challenge for me. I go through periods where I'm comfortable and others where I find it very difficult. That was certainly one of those periods. I never stop, though. I think that would be a mistake. I often wonder in a period like that if I stopped whether I'd ever be able to go back. I'm not sure I could. Some people have done that in the past and not come back for many years. I had smart people around me who said, keep going, keep going, keep going."

Susan Graham told us that playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking at the same time her father was dying actually helped her deal with her grief.

Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, with Rodney Gilfry as Stanley Kowalski (1998). Photo by Marty Sohl/San Francisco Opera.

"She told me that too. I think that opera can be great gift in that way. I know a very famous actor who said that every play he's ever done has been strangely related to what he was going through in his life at the time. It's almost like a road map for living your life. I have often found the same parallel in the roles I've played. I mean, talk about doing a fragile character like Blanche DuBois at the worst time in my life…"

Do you fantasize about characters or stories you'd like to see made into operas?

"Not specific characters, but yes. One of the reasons I do new music is because I'm starving to play someone like me. What I mean by that is a modern woman, someone who is funny, brave, smart, sophisticated-the kinds of characters we like to read about in novels but almost never see in opera. Contemporary composers so often choose either European subjects or antique subjects for their stories. And I'm always saying, 'You're an American composer. Choose a contemporary American subject.' It's the same with song literature. When I work on commissions, I try to encourage composers to choose American poetry and, ideally, from my perspective, even better if it's by a woman. Eighty percent of what I do is based in Europe. Not only am I singing in a foreign language but it's a different culture and the women are most often victimized lots in different ways. It gets a little sad."

Many people think you would be wonderful in the title role of Samuel Barber's Vanessa.

"Vanessa? Maybe, eventually. I don't love the opera. The incompleteness of it disturbs me. I love the aria. Kiri [te Kanawa] evidently was just beautiful in it in Washington recently. That's the kind of role one can do much later though. Since I'm doing so little opera now, I can't exactly do everything.

"By the way, did you like Streetcar?"

Yes, I did. I find that the music makes a stronger impression with every hearing. I think it's a better opera than many 19th century Italian and French works that get performed regularly.

"That's so true. We were just talking about Thaïs in that same light. What's so bad about Thaïs when we're already doing Samson and Dalila and so many other imperfect pieces?

"Well, I've got to run now. Bye."

Renée Fleming on CD