Renée Fleming sat down with Tavis Smiley in Los Angeles to discuss a variety of topics including what it's like to have André Previn write a piece specifically for the soprano; getting boxed into specific singing genres by critics; the "valleys" of her career; how her voice is holding up to the demands of time; singing the national anthem; singing with honesty; the usefulness of critics; what is going to help the arts survive in the future; among other topics discussed. Watch the video of the interview after the jump, as well as a bonus of an earlier episode of Tavis Smiley interviewing soprano Jessye Norman from 2011. And in case you missed the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to André Previn in 1998 at which Ms. Fleming sang "I Want Magic!" from the composer's operatic rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire, click the image on the right to launch the video of the performance. For more information about Tavis Smiley and to see more of his interviews, go to PBS online by clicking here.
Last night was the finale of Renée Fleming's Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall called "Vienna: Window to Modernity," a thoughtful tribute to the time and place where the European musical tradition, under the influence of literary and visual arts, gave way to the 20th century. Here, Ms. Fleming, composer and conductor André Previn, and conductor and music historian Leon Botstein discuss how several of the major Viennese composers of the period—Korngold, Schoenberg, and Zeisl—spent a lot of time in Los Angeles and how their experiences there differed widely. More information about Renée Fleming's Perspectives at Carnegie Hall is available: http://www.carnegiehall.org/fleming/ and http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2013/5/4/0730/PM/Vienna-Window-to-Modernity/. Watch the video clip, along with two previous others, after the jump.
