86 Facts About Renee Fleming

Unusual among artists whose careers began in opera, Renee Fleming has achieved name recognition beyond the classical music world.

Renee Fleming's has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English.

In 2008, Renee Fleming became the first woman in the 125-year history of the Metropolitan Opera to solo headline a season opening night gala.

Beyond opera, Renee Fleming has sung and recorded lieder, chansons, jazz, musical theatre, and indie rock, and she has performed with a wide range of artists, including Luciano Pavarotti, Lou Reed, Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Andrea Bocelli, Sting and John Prine.

Renee Fleming has recorded songs for the soundtracks of several major films, two of which won the Academy Award for Best Picture .

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Renee Fleming's has great-grandparents who were born in Prague and later emigrated to the US.

Renee Fleming's studied with Patricia Misslin at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

Renee Fleming's performed scenes from Der Rosenkavalier during her time at Aspen, and the Marschallin in that opera became one of her calling-card roles at opera houses around the globe.

Renee Fleming's won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1985, which enabled her to work in Europe with Arleen Auger and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

Renee Fleming's then sang at jazz clubs to pay for further studies at the Juilliard School.

Renee Fleming began performing professionally in smaller concerts and with small opera companies while still a graduate student at Juilliard.

Renee Fleming's sang frequently in the Musica Viva concert series sponsored by the New York Unitarian Church of All Souls during the 1980s.

Renee Fleming's reprised the role the following year in her debut at the Spoleto Festival.

Also in 1989, Renee Fleming made her debut with the New York City Opera as Mimi in La boheme under conductor Chris Nance and her debut with The Royal Opera, London, as Dirce in Cherubini's Medee.

Renee Fleming's was awarded a Richard Tucker Career Grant and won the George London Competition.

Renee Fleming's sang for the 50th anniversary of the American Ballet Theatre in their production of Eliot Feld's Les Noces and returned to the New York City Opera to sing both the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Micaela in Bizet's Carmen.

Renee Fleming's sang the title role in the U S premiere presentation of Donizetti's 1841 opera Maria Padilla with Opera Omaha.

Renee Fleming made her Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera debut portraying Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro in 1991.

Renee Fleming's was originally not scheduled to make her Met debut until the following season, but stepped in to replace Felicity Lott who had become ill.

Renee Fleming's returned to the Met later that year to sing Rosina in the world premiere of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles.

Renee Fleming sang the role of Alaide in Bellini's La straniera in a concert performance by the Opera Orchestra of New York; made her debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in the title role of Rossini's Armida; and debuted with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the title role of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah.

In 1995 Renee Fleming portrayed the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier with Houston Grand Opera; sang in Salome in Massenet's Herodiade with the Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall; and sang Rusalka with the San Francisco Opera.

Solti chose Renee Fleming to be the first recipient of his "Solti Prize", an award given to an outstanding younger singer, and given by the "Academie du disque lyrique" in a ceremony equivalent to the Grammy Awards.

That year, Renee Fleming debuted at the Bayreuth Festival as Eva in Wagner's Meistersinger.

Renee Fleming's appeared at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and performed Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Orchestra of St Luke's under Andre Previn.

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Renee Fleming's gave recitals as well at notable venues such as the Salzburg Festival.

Renee Fleming's made her Carnegie Hall recital debut and sang Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs with Claudio Abbado and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival.

Renee Fleming's originated the roles of Blanche DuBois in the world premiere Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire with the San Francisco Opera in September 1998.

Renee Fleming's performed in recital with Andre Previn and made her debut at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival.

Renee Fleming closed out the year by performing for President Bill Clinton at the White House for a Christmas celebration.

In 2000, Renee Fleming appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and at Covent Garden as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and sang the title role in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia with the Opera Orchestra of New York.

Renee Fleming's appeared as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival and at the Met.

Renee Fleming's performed with the Orchestra of St Luke's, under Mark Elder as part of the PBS series Live From Lincoln Center and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Haydn's Creation under James Levine.

Renee Fleming's sang in Verdi's Requiem twice, once with the London Symphony Orchestra and once with the New York Philharmonic.

Renee Fleming's sang in several concerts in the United Kingdom with Bryn Terfel and gave the most extensive recital tour of her career, singing in dozens of recitals with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Renee Fleming's sang the title role in Massenet's Thais with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, in addition to Rusalka at Covent Garden and another Violetta with Houston Grand Opera.

Renee Fleming's sang her first Countess in Capriccio at the Palais Garnier and performed in concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra among others.

In 2006, Renee Fleming performed a solo concert at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with Sir Andrew Davis, sang Violetta in La traviata with Los Angeles Opera; returned to the Met to sing both Manon and Rodelinda; and took up Violetta in the Met's touring production to Japan.

Renee Fleming's recorded song cycles with pianist Brad Mehldau, which were released as Love Sublime.

Additionally, Renee Fleming appeared at numerous music festivals, including the Salzburg Festival and the Lincoln Center Festival and she gave recitals throughout Southeast Asia, Germany, and Switzerland.

Renee Fleming performed three favorite roles: Violetta in act 2 of Verdi's La traviata; Manon in act 3 of Massenet's Manon; and the Countess in the final scene of Strauss's Capriccio.

In 2009, Renee Fleming premiered the complete version of Le temps l'horloge by Henri Dutilleux.

Renee Fleming's sang Violetta at Covent Garden and Rusalka at the Metropolitan Opera, the Marschallin at the Baden-Baden Festival, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and the Metropolitan Opera.

Renee Fleming's sang a variety of short pieces at Napa Valley's Festival del Sole in California.

Renee Fleming sang the aria "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka in Czech, and sang "Perfect Day" in a duet with Reed.

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At the Last Night of the Proms in London in 2010, Renee Fleming performed songs by Richard Strauss, Dvorak and Smetana.

In November 2011, Renee Fleming appeared in the title role of Handel's Rodelinda at the Metropolitan Opera, in a revival of a production created for her in 2004, the first time the company had ever presented the work.

Renee Fleming co-hosted and co-starred with actor Patrick Stewart for the sold-out performance.

Renee Fleming is quite simply the best Blanche I've seen since Elizabeth Marvel brutally essayed the role in Ivo van Hove's brilliant deconstruction at New York Theater Workshop in 1999.

In January 2015, Renee Fleming co-starred with Kelli O'Hara in a new production of the operetta The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Renee Fleming played the role of an opera diva in the production, which featured Douglas Sills, Anna Chlumsky and Jerry O'Connell.

Renee Fleming performed the role of Nettie Fowler in a 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel at the Imperial Theatre.

Renee Fleming was joined by actress Uma Thurman, who provided narration for the spoken text.

Renee Fleming makes the transition to Broadway style effortlessly, using her gorgeously rich middle register.

In 2019, Renee Fleming premiered the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts' The Brightness of Light, a setting of letters between Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.

Renee Fleming performed the work in concert at Tanglewood, Santa Fe, Aspen and the Kennedy Center.

Renee Fleming married actor Rick Ross in 1989, and the couple had two daughters.

Renee Fleming appeared as a special guest vocalist on Joe Jackson's 1994 album Night Music on the song "Lullaby".

Renee Fleming has released a number of recordings on the Decca label.

In 2005, Renee Fleming recorded a jazz album with pianist Fred Hersch and guitarist Bill Frisell entitled Haunted Heart.

In 2008, Renee Fleming sang Blossom Dearie's "Touch the Hand of Love" accompanied by Chris Thile, Edgar Meyers, and Yo-Yo Ma on Ma's Songs of Joy and Peace album.

In November 2010, the Charlie Haden Quartet West released the jazz CD Sophisticated Ladies in which Renee Fleming was a guest vocalist on the song "A Love Like This" by Ned Washington and Victor Young.

In 2015, Renee Fleming sang "New York Tendaberry" accompanied by Chris Thile, Edgar Meyers and Yo-Yo Ma on the Billy Childs album Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, the song winning the Grammy for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals.

Renee Fleming appeared on the children's show Sesame Street singing a lively rendition of "Caro nome" from Rigoletto, replacing the traditional Italian text with lyrics intended to aid children learning to count.

Renee Fleming's performed several times on Garrison Keillor's public radio program A Prairie Home Companion.

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Renee Fleming appears on the soundtrack of the 2003 film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in which she sings in the fictional language Sindarin.

Renee Fleming sang on the soundtrack of the 2003 Disney release, Piglet's Big Movie, performing the duet "Comforting to Know" with Carly Simon.

In 2004, Renee Fleming performed in the Kennedy Center Honors gala, telecast on CBS, in tribute to honoree Warren Beatty.

Renee Fleming's previously performed in Kennedy Center Honors broadcasts for Andre Previn and Van Cliburn .

Renee Fleming sang the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic "You'll Never Walk Alone" with the combined choirs of the United States Naval Academy.

Renee Fleming was featured on the first episode of the second season of HBO Masterclass.

Renee Fleming's led a master class in which she taught and mentored four aspiring college-aged singers.

Renee Fleming appears on the soundtrack of the 2011 Steven Spielberg animated film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn as the singing voice of opera diva Bianca Castafiore, singing Juliette's waltz from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette.

Renee Fleming's recorded Alexandre Desplat's theme song "Still Dream" for the 2012 DreamWorks animated feature, Rise of the Guardians.

In November 2013, Fleming programmed and hosted a three-day festival held at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC titled "American Voices", which explored the artistry and pedagogy of singing across musical genres.

The gown which Renee Fleming wore while performing has been added to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History.

Renee Fleming provided the singing voice of Roxann Coss, the American opera diva played by Julianne Moore, in the 2018 film Bel Canto, an adaptation of Ann Patchett's best-selling novel.

At the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony broadcast on CBS, Renee Fleming sang a jazz aria composed by honoree Wayne Shorter as a tribute to Shorter.

Renee Fleming appeared as a guest on the National Public Radio quiz show Wait Wait.

Renee Fleming has been an advocate for the study of the relationship between music and health, as well as the utility of music in neuroscience research.

In 2016, Fleming was appointed Artistic Advisor for the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Renee Fleming has been an Artist Spokesperson for the American Music Therapy Association.

In May 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic had halted concert touring, Fleming launched Music and Mind LIVE, a weekly web series, streamed via Fleming's Facebook page and the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts YouTube Channel.

Renee Fleming has supported and served on the board of directors of Sing For Hope since the organization's inception in 2006.

Renee Fleming has served on the board of trustees of Carnegie Hall, and as the artistic director of SongStudio, Carnegie's intensive program for emerging vocalists and pianists dedicated to the art of the song recital.

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Renee Fleming has been a member of the Artistic Advisory Board of the Polyphony Foundation, which brings Israeli youth together through the study and performance of music.