a small portion of Renee Fleming

Renee Fleming / RPO / Dutoit - Royal Festival Hall, 3 November 2009

This concert was billed as Renee Fleming with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, but the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Renee Fleming would have been more accurate. I expect this sort of celebrity recital to feature a fair bit of orchestral padding, but a scant twenty minutes of the ninety actually featured the soprano. The rest was a dreary trudge through Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (which comprised the entire first half) and Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture that left me longing for the flair and passion of a Gergiev in place of Charles Dutoit's throwaway bonbons. 

Renee herself seemed as if she'd rather be somewhere else. Kicking off with a fussy rendition of Tatiana's long letter scene from Eugene Onegin, her voice only clicked into gear towards its end. (Wasn't there any time to warm up?) At which point she took a twenty minute break while the orchestra slugged through their Tchaikovsky.

Then it was CD promotion time, with three brief arias by Leoncavallo and Giordano followed by Manon's Sola, perduta, abbandonata from Manon Lescaut. And that was it.

In a way, verismo is tailormade for Fleming. All those little scoops and gasps and burbles of hers which can seem mannered elsewhere pass for dramatic expression in this genre. And of course her gorgeous pearlescent tone sends her lines beaming out like moonlight. But - and this is a matter of personal taste - sheer loveliness is no substitute for emotional authenticity. Give me the rawness and abandon and textual attentiveness of a Licia Albanese any day.

Was Renee late for another appointment? She wrenched her flowers from the attendant, shoved them to one side, and announced there'd only be one encore before she'd had more than a minute's applause. The offering, O mio babbino caro, floated out exquisitely without the aid of breath or consonants, was the best thing she'd done all night.

Her gorgeous and flattering biscuit satin gown was, by the way, designed by regular concertgoer Vivienne Westwood, best-dressed of the night in a dashing orange-print cape thingy with a burglar stocking pulled down over her hair. Comforting to know that certain people at least will never do things by halves.

*UPDATE* - a comment by Michael below which anyone who attended the concert should read:
"I've just phoned the Southbank Centre. Apparently an email was written by the conductor, Charles Dutoit, saying that they had 'tried to balance the orchestra with the beauty of Renée Fleming' - or something very similar anyway. Utter rubbish - it was the recital version of a smash and grab. I suggested a refund based on the fact that the concert wasn't what was advertised: they didn't seem shocked by this at all, I think a few people have demanded this. If you went and are not satisfied, I suggest you do the same as I'm doing. Tickets and a letter to:
Customer Services
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London
SE1 8XX"

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Comments

[Michael]

After last night's shambles, I'll never pay to see Renée Fleming again, that's all I can say!

[John]

You were obviously spared her droopy Marschallin in the moth eaten old Rosenkavalier when you were in New York!

[Steven Rowland]

What a very apt summing up of a strange and unsatisfactory evening. I was only able to book quite late and had to make do with a seat near the back and to the side - the best available. In the end I rejoiced that I hadn't wasted my money on anything better.

Surely it wouldn't have hurt Ms Fleming to make some kind of token appearance in the first half of the concert, even if it were without increasing the total of what she actually sang?

[Manou]

I was also there and did feel literally cheated - my ticket cost £42.00 for less than 21mn of the diva = more than £120 an hour. Lord Rothschild was in the audience and even he must have bemoaned the poor value for money.

She wore an explosion in a cream satin and tulle factory and a disdainful air to go with it. There were moments when some wonderful and unearthly sounds were overheard above the too-loud orchestra, but the programme was a disgrace (no Thais, no Marietta's Lied and the wrong Manon choice + two lightweight arias from the lovely Leoncavallo Boheme) and the whole thing breached the Trade Description Act.

Next - will Angela cancel November 10?

[Michael]

I've just phoned the Southbank Centre. Apparently an email was written by the conductor, Charles Dutoit, saying that they had 'tried to balance the orchestra with the beauty of Renée Fleming' - or something very similar anyway. Utter rubbish - it was the recital version of a smash and grab.

I suggested a refund based on the fact that the concert wasn't what was advertised: they didn't seem shocked by this at all, I think a few people have demanded this. If you went and are not satisfied, I suggest you do the same as I'm doing.

Tickets and a letter to:

Customer Services
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London
SE1 8XX

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000453643945]

We had the same concert here in Amsterdam (oct 31th)and thu I do agree there was a little less Fleming then I would prefere, we had a great evening and the Dutch audience were very satisfied with the whole concert. She is a sublime artist and thu I like a lot encore's I do respect singers deciding otherwise. In Amsterdam she signed and had time, .... didn't she sign in London?

[Manou]

Check what happens when you click on "This concert"...

[hab mir's gelobt]

of course one cannot click on the link to the concert anymore as it has already happened. the south bank centre only lists future concerts on their website, not concerts in the past!

[Mark]

Interesting review and discussion. We sat in the choir (back of her head moved expressively!) Glad I didn't pay more though: although I quite enjoyed it overall, it did seem a bizarrely unbalanced evening. The placing of the Tchaikovsky R&J was just barmy.

To Dave de Vries: according to the chap at the CD signing stall in the Foyer, "she cancelled" the planned signing. Given the observations about the speed of her off at the end, one can only speculate about the discussions that surrounded the pre-concert planning...!

Maybe the South Bank Centre needs to get a bit more assertive about what constitutes a sound artistic endeavour over an opportunistic bit of marketing - I am a realist about these things, and I know that the finance/marketing angle is integral to what makes the classical music world go around, but I would suggest there's a bit of rebalancing to be done, away from this "sing the CD" approach to concert planning.

[Laura]

Same in Amsterdam last Saturday. At least she did sign afterwards and the RPO performed Dvorak's New World Symphony after the interval.

Pictures + impressions can be found on my blog, if anyone's interested.

[inter mezzo]

thanks Laura - interesting comments about the sound balance, and great pictures!

[John]

Congratulations (if that is the word) for being recognised as a "sister blog" by Parterre. I have long given up posting there because of their "f*ck*ng Br*ts" attitude.

[Patricia Browne]

Very disappointed with Rene Fleming after years of being a fan. Didn't like the idea of the orchestra taking up the whole of the first half with one piece of music. I also feel cheated - it was just like a classical music concert from the series with a soprano singing an odd aria instead of it being Rene Fleming in Concert! We came by train and booked a night in a hotel to stay overnight - don't want to add up the cost altogether and wouldn't have minded if it had been what we booked for.

Pat (Merseyside)

[Mike]

Ms Fleming has undoubted talents and gifts so rare BUT with that that comes a responsibility to her audiences. Her attitude was disappointing.
She displayed her wares with very little appreciation, I felt, that people work hard for the money that they spend in her. If its only about selling the voice for the CD then when that that voice goes, as it has to, so will the CD sales and concerts - where will her admirers be then?
I felt cheated like some others but in fact its rather sad!

[dolcevita]

Pat, that's a "terrible story": to come to London by train, to pay the hotel room, and pay for the concert in which Rene Fleming offered just a few crumbles and no cake at all :(

Why didn't she sing a few tunes from her new CD (which I think is actually good)?

[Samuel]

Pat,

Perhaps you should convey your disappointment (and rightly so I may add.. as it were to the horses mouth) or at least the horses muck spreaders

Write to Renée


You can write to Renée at either of these addresses:
Renée Fleming
c/o IMG Artists
825 Seventh Ave, 8th Flr
New York, NY 10019
USA
http://www.imgartists.com/?page=artist&id=365

Renée Fleming
c/o M.L. Falcone, Public Relations
155 West 68th Street, Suite 1114
New York, NY 10023
USA

I would like to hear any response that you get.

I hate it when these very good singers do the cash cow stuff, purely for a shopping trip to London and part of their fee paid in cash to cover administration costs?....

http://www.renee-fleming.com/

[inter mezzo]

@ John - Parterre's "f*ck*ng Br*ts" thing bothers me not - and not just because of the most generous mention, for which I thank La Cieca. I think we've all guessed by now it's simply a quite understandable colonial inferiority complex further inflamed by jealousy. If La Cieca could could turn enough tricks to cover the airfare, she'd be over here like a shot.

[Jane Ennis]

What a pity it was such a disappointment for everyone.....when I saw her in LA TRAVIATA in the summer, she seemed on very good form.
(I was at Philip Langridge's 70th birthday concert that evening!)