On Sunday night Renee Fleming joined Valery Gergiev and the LSO for a City Livery Concert in front of the Lord Mayor and more than 750 cordwainers, chandlers, girdlers, curriers and fishmongers, cunningly disguised as middle-aged men in suits. It was left to Renee herself to provide the glamour (gown by Angel Sanchez, jewellery by Ann Ziff, the programme helpfully informed us).
In many ways, Renee's voice is as remarkably well preserved as her lineless complexion. But while there's still cream on top, her lower register now sounds distinctly skimmed. Dutilleux's Le temps l’horloge and Ravel's Shéhérazade were wise choices for showing off her elegant phrasing and vocal gleam. But they also exposed a few poorly-supported and dodgily-tuned notes lower down the scale. And the price of the ferocious technical control keeping the rest of the notes in place was a distinct lack of emotional engagement.
Renee has husbanded her voice and her career with care, and there are plenty of singers half her age with twice her problems. But the sad truth is that nobody's voice lasts forever. Her alleged retirement plans for 2016-17 look wisely timed.
