[.ca] Renee Fleming

Amazon.com essential recording:
Surely, Renée Fleming has one of the most beautiful voices to be heard anywhere today. It combines velvety warmth, creamy richness, soaring radiance, and flawless purity, and seems to flow out without effort, every tone impeccably centered and in tune, capable of almost too much variety of color and nuance. Fleming's breath control is incredible; she can spin out long, arching phrases and build up climaxes with thrilling intensity. The program of this recital displays Fleming's vocal and dramatic gifts to full advantage, and includes both familiar and lesser-known arias from Italian and French operas. Although some of these are not in her repertoire, she clearly feels close to them. The three opening Puccini favorites from Gianni Schicchi, Madama Butterfly, and La Bohème are a bit fussy and over-inflected, hardly suited to the characters' simplicity; but, from then on, Fleming seems completely at one with both her tragic and her lighthearted heroines. She captures their warm inwardness, rapture, passion, ecstasy, and desperation; darkening and lightening her voice at will. Her top notes soar gloriously, her trills laugh. The orchestra is splendid, supporting her all the way and sounding wonderful. --Edith Eisler

From Amazon.co.uk:
Renée Fleming's previous three recital discs for Decca (Mozart Arias, Opera Scenes and Strauss Heroines) had some kind of name other than her own on the cover. This one doesn't bother, which leaves you in no doubt that the whole thing is about the lady herself: glossily packaged to fill the gap in the sleekly glamorous super-diva market that Kiri te Kanawa stands poised to leave as age creeps up on her. Fleming in fact has more to offer than Dame Kiri ever did. She's the compleat soprano, with a warm, rich sound, a stunning upper range, dramatic presence and a good line in embellishment. And with this disc you get it all and more. The repertory is standard: 19th- and early 20th-century opera arias, mostly verismo but with Verdi, Bizet, Massenet and a spotlit "Casta Diva" from Bellini. And it comes with dazzling style. She may not quite suggest the vulnerability you look for in a Liù, a Butterfly or a Lauretta, but the elegance, security and musicality is undeniable. With silken sound in the accompaniments, this disc is designed to sell you Ms Fleming as the most accomplished female voice of the moment. It succeeds. --Michael White

Chronique amazon.fr:
Son nom, tout simplement : tel est le titre du dernier album de la divine soprano américaine, accompagnée par la baguette délicate de Sir Charles Mackerras. Après une intégrale de Thaïs de Massenet, Renée Fleming a choisi de nous montrer l'incroyable diversité de son talent, à travers quatorze airs d'opéras célèbres, piochés dans le répertoire italien et français, des vocalises de la Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) de Gounod à l'attente passionnée de la Cio-Cio San (Madame Butterfly) de Puccini. Massenet, Verdi, Puccini, Cilea, Leoncavallo, Catalani, Bellini, Gounod : rien ne semble résister à son timbre charnel, immédiatement reconnaissable (caractéristique, devenue rare, des grands chanteurs), à son étendue vocale étonnante, à son souffle infini et à ses aigus sans faiblesse. Que ceux qui lui reprochent un style aseptisé, écoutent "Adieu ma petite table" (Manon de Massenet). Cet air, souvent larmoyant, est ici entonné avec une simplicité bouleversante. Le miracle d'une telle voix ? Une assurance qui n'oublie jamais sa vulnérabilité. L'émotion à fleur de lèvres --Franck Erikson

Total bliss:
This woman has a golden, luscious voice. The most supreme lyric soprano in decades! And with the range of a dramatic coloratura-soprano! A gift by God, the voice, the looks, the acting, the technique, the colours! Hail America's greatest opera-jewel! The most beautiful soprano ever!

The best soprano!!!:
Her beautiful voice matches her gorgeous looks! Renee Fleming rules at the MET and is adored everywhere she sings! Brava Renee!

How DARE you?:
How dare you drag a perfectly fine review through the mud? Disagreeing with someone is one thing but calling names, lying and making up stuff is quite another! Be ashamed of your manners! Sills would be shocked at such lies, she herself proposed to Renee that she should sing Norma! Sills knows better than you, foul-mouthed liar!

Fleming soars:
This recital-CD is one of the best ever released. Quite honestly I wonder how ANYONE cannot hear the beauty and the precious quality we are presented with. Just look at the brilliant repertoire Renee Fleming has made her own, how incredibly careful she chooses her roles unlike other rich lyrics with coloratura extension who wrecked their voices with too heavy roles. She starts with the lyric piece everyone knows, "mio babbino caro" and how beautifully she sings it! Warm, tender and colourful, beautiful and rich with endless legato and superb breath-control. What follows afterwards? Puccini's declicate Geisha singing about her lover returning to her! Listen how she SOARS up to the climaxes, the sunny tone of her timbre glowing with unequalled beauty! The feeling of hope and desire is brought to life exquisitely! And her Musetta? Deliciously wicked! Here Netrebko PALES in comparison, nobody outsings her here! Her pleading Liu and dreamy Nedda are little gems, showing us how sublime verismo can be. Listen how she can sing a full forte and slowly sail into a SOARING pianissimo, something rarely done so well! New beauties can be heard in her lovely Adriana, making one YEARNING for a complete recording! Her GOLDEN Wally can be compared to Callas only, her Manon has no equals, not even de los Angeles or Sills. The DVD of her complete Manon is a MUST! Her Michaela is not a naive girl but a loving woman full of courage, willing even to face the smugglers to find Don José. Attempting dramatic coloratura roles such as Elena, Norma and Juliette brings new insights, new beauties! How the pianissimi of her "Casta Diva" soar to heaven! The seamless legato, the incredibly easy coloratura so filled with meaning! This is a WOW! Her attempt to sing the lirico spinto role of Amelia from Simone Boccanegra shows how POWERFUL this voice can be and gives me hope to hear her as Trovatore-Leonora or Norma in the times to come. A brilliant recital by the most beautiful soprano voice of our time!

A glorious voice:
The review below has already been posted, so the Fleming-basher has to steal reviews now... Anyway, this Cd is lovely. Absolutely lovely!

• Puccini: O mio babbino caro - Gianni Schicchi
• Puccini: Un bel di vedremo - Madame Butterfly
• Puccini: Quando men vo - Musetta's waltz - La Boheme
• Puccini compl. Alfano: Signore, ascolta - Turandot
• Leoncavallo: Stridono lassu - I Pagliacci
• Cilea: Io son l'umile ancella - Adriana Lecouvreur
• Catalani: Ebben? Ne adnro lontana - La Wally
• Massenet: Je suis encore etourdie - Manon
• Massenet: Adieu notre petite table - Manon
• Bizet: Micaela's aria - Carmen
• Gounod: Je veux vivre - Romeo & Juliette
• Verdi: come in quest'ora bruna - Simon Boccanegra
• Bellini: Casta Diva - Norma
• Verdi: Bolero - Les Vepres Siciliennes