Renée Fleming Gives Revealing Gotham Interview To Vera Wang

RF: You know what’s interesting for me—I don’t know if you feel this way—but I have this need to keep things fresh. My inspiration, in a way, is Joni Mitchell, because she would do these albums that were different; she went to jazz, to rock, and she would completely reinvent herself. I loved it. I know she would complain that she lost audience who only wanted the same thing, but I’m an artistic person, and I recognized her search. You have to do that every time you do a show. When I see your shows, I always wonder how you keep coming up with new ideas.
VW: Well, it’s very difficult; I can’t say it isn’t. Some seasons are better than others, but it’s an excruciating process! Bringing up some insane audiences that you have sung for—you have performed at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and also for President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. I just wonder: Do you feel extra pressure at these events?

RF: I really love doing these events because it is so exciting to be a part of history. In a way, it’s much more satisfying than having to sing in front of a core opera audience that is super critical—I find that much harder. In our field, we are criticized in the paper every time we perform, but there is also the blogger world now….
VW: Same thing in fashion today. Anyone can write anything they want about you, whether they are qualified or not.

RF: I think there is a tremendous misogyny towards women, especially with those of us who have public lives. One year, I saw two weeks of tabloid articles about Madonna’s hands. I just thought, What is this world we are living in?

VW: Do you run into a lot of good and bad things about being high-profile in New York?
RF: New York is no problem for me, unless I’m around Lincoln Center; people are so respectful and wonderful about what I do. You probably have a lot, though.

VW: I had dinner with you once at Sant Ambroeus, and I remember a very big patron of The Met came over and bowed in front of you at the table [Laughs]. I believe it was Bruce Wasserstein, and he wasn’t a man to bow in front of anyone. So I was very impressed that night.
RF: That’s not an every-evening event, I have to say. Maybe I should pay someone to follow me into restaurants and bow. That’s something Raquel, my character [in the play], would do.

VW: With all the accolades you have received, does it ever get old?
RF: Accolades never get old [Laughs]. It’s never enough, because those of us who are hugely self-critical, and I know you are as well, are always thinking things are not good enough and that you have to be better. It’s part of our nature to always be searching for something better, and no accolade from outside can change that.  [Source]

Read the full interview by clicking here. Watch a video of the photo shoot, complete with narration from Renée Fleming, after the jump.

Vogue Covers Opera Fashions On MET's Opening Night "Figaro"

Pre-Nozze: Anna Netrebko and soon-to-be-husband Yusif Eyvazov at opening night festivities.

Vogue photographer Hannah Thomson was at the Metropolitan Opera's Opening Night Gala. The evening featured a performance of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. Evening attendants included Maggie Grace, Zac Posen, Vera Wang, Grace Coddington, Josh Lucas, Christine Baranski, and more. See the full gallery of the glamorous night by clicking here. 

Fall Fashions: Mercedes Bass and soprano Renée Fleming

Will Renée Fleming's Super Bowl Exposure Catapult Her To Next Level?

On February 2, 2014, Renée Fleming sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" for Super Bowl XLVIII to a stadium with a capacity of 82,566 people in addition to a home-viewing audience of 111.5 million (the largest in the history of American television). The response to an opera singer performing America's National Anthem for the first time in the sports event's history came swiftly from the Twitter crowd, Facebook followers and YouTube commentators. The general public, more accustomed to the likes of Christina Aguilera, Dixie Chicks, and Beyoncé Knowles warbling out the famous tune, was surprisingly supportive with positive feedback. What does all of this media exposure mean to Renée Fleming and her illustrious career? At the time of this writing, the video of the event on YouTube has been viewed over 800,000 times. Taking a look at the artist's Facebook page days before the Super Bowl appearance, she had just over 77,000 "likes" and now the page stands at 94,362. No official data has been released on whether record and MP3 sales have skyrocketed, but a quick glimpse at Amazon.com shows that the Decca-exclusive artist has three albums in the top-20 best seller list for opera & vocal (Guilty Pleasures, The Art of Renée Fleming, and her self-titled album from 2000). Next week's results may yield a more revealing story. Be sure to keep an eye on the Billboard charts. The opera star has already sung for the Queen of England, the President of the United States, and has even read the "Top 10 List" on Late Show with David Letterman. Two nights after the Super Bowl, the soprano was back at the Metropolitan Opera performing the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka to a crowd of 4,000. How large that number must seem to a young singer at the beginning of their career and how small it must feel after performing at the Super Bowl. Are there going to be stadium concerts in the future that will sell out the likes of "The Three Tenors" during it's most popular days? Unlikely. The real question: What is the next level? Write a book? Done. Appear in a movie? Done. Win a Grammy Award? Done (4 times). Act in a stage play? That's coming too. Perhaps she really isn't looking for more. After all the accomplishments, she might list happy wife and proud mother as her most cherished. And for the fashionistas that are wondering, she wore "...a custom Vera Wang black long sleeve gown with pleated accent at the waist, and an ivory silk faille floor length wrap coat with exposed shoulder and hand draped detail." [Source, Source]

The Opera Story NOT Being Written About George Steel

Sneaking into the picture: George Steel
with Vera Wang and Angela A. Chao at the
David H. Koch Theater in November 2010.

Amidst all the horror stories of New York City Opera going down in flames, it would be interesting to hear how Dallas Opera may have been saved by the brief four-month tenure of George Steel as its General Manager. Could it have suffered the same ill-programmed fate of NYCO? Zachary Woolfe writes a wonderful commentary for the New York Observer on the current state of affairs at the theater. Read it here.