Renee Fleming's Wiener magic

Renée Fleming /Maciej Pikulski - Barbican, 9 December 2012

Who knew Renee Fleming had a sense of humour? She poked fun at her own OTT golden gown - "I wanted you to get the Klimt connection." She paused between songs to join the bronchial audience in a spot of coughing - "I have a cold too, so I sympathise!". She flubbed her words in one of the encores, then threw up her hands and giggled before starting over.

OK, so it wasn't quite Sarah Silverman, but what a relief from her usual divabot stage persona. Her singing too was freer and more adventurous than it has been for a long time, her voice too, despite the claimed cold, in excellent nick.

Perhaps it helped that she had only a piano and not a full orchestra to contend with. And perhaps the change from the challenging programme originally planned to songs closer to her heart had something to do with it too.

The music of fin-de-siècle Vienna suits Renee's voice and sensibilities like no other. Mahler, Wolf, Korngold, Zemlinsky and (early) Schönberg were poured out like liquid gold. Purists might regret the shortage of consonants, but this music - lush, lyrical, extravagant sometimes to the cusp of vulgarity - can accommodate the subjection of text to line.

In her opening Wolf group, I wondered if her voice was really big enough for the unforgiving Barbican acoustic. But her tone broadened as she progressed. Her expression too, grew more varied and even daring. Mahler's Um Mitternacht emerged with uncustomary vehemence; Korngold's Was Du mir bist was as sweet and tender as could be imagined.

Gratifyingly unwilling to let a 3pm start cramp her style, Renee sported a different gown for each half of the show. One was navy and black plaid with glittery highlights, the other golden ruffled taffeta, and both the sort of boned, structured creations that demand their own seat on the plane. She paired them with shoes she could barely walk in and golfball-sized diamante earrings. The human being may have been revealed, but the diva remains.

Programme:

Hugo Wolf Goethe Lieder
Frühling übers Jahr
Gleich und Gleich
Die Sprode
Die Bekehrte
Anakreons Grab

Mahler Rückert Lieder
Ich Atmet einen Linden Duft
Liebst du um Schoenheit
Um Mitternacht
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

Arnold Schoenberg
Erwartung, Op 2, No 1
Jane Grey, Op 12, No 1

Alexander von Zemlinsky Fünf Lieder auf Texte von Richard Dehmel
Vorspiel
Ansturm
Letzte Bitte
Stromüber
Auf See

Korngold
Sterbelied, Op 14, No 1
Das Heldengrab am Pruth, Op 9, No 5
Was Du mir bist, Op 22, No 1
Das Eilende Bachlein, Op 27, No 2
J Strauss arr. Korngold Frag mich oft, from Walzer aus Wien

Encores
Strauss - Zueignung
Delibes - Les filles de Cadix
Korngold - Marietta's Lied

Comments

[Alexander]

Renée is always a good girl

[sjt]

She's always had a sense of humour: she just never used to think it appropriate to indulge it during performance.

But once, maybe ten or so years ago, she was due to sing a duets concert at Hampton Court with Bryn Terfel. It was high summer June, and by 10pm, after the long interval, it was 3c. All you could see was plumes of steam coming out of everybody's mouths. Meatloaf, meanwhile, not best pleased that the frozen-solid audience had not been inclined to clap along with his ghastly foot-stomping Escamillo, had had a hissy fit, moaned to us about the effect the cold night air was having on his delicate cords and cancelled the second half. Fleming came on and said: "Well, there's two things to tell you. I'm not cold, honestly (she was wearing some vastly décolleté number in floaty chiffon). And I never thought I'd have to sing duets on my own, but I'm kinda gonna have to. But hey, it's a challenge!"

She's certainly blossoming as Mrs. Jessel. I thought the recital was wonderful, and much the best she's given here in all-but 25 years...

[Pushed Up Mezzo]

The gold gown is beautiful, but the tartan affair looks more suitable for the staff party at Balmoral (minus that sensible navy cardy of course). At least she's given up on the Gian Franco Ferre shagpile carpet look.
And I too remember the Great Hampton Court Rescue (only hazily as the hip-flask was working overtime to beat the chill). About the same time she sang an utterly breathtaking "Summertime" at the Gramophone Awards in the RFH.

[AddledPaul]

The pianist's attire around his midriff wins no sartorial prizes!

[MikeG]

From the second picture it looks like she was being accompanied by Jonas Kaufmann on piano.

Now that I would have paid to hear, maybe even suffered the long trek to the Barbican!

[Gerry Smith]

Super gig.

Quite apart from that delicious tone, RF never fails to impress with her command of languages. Her clarity and fidelity in German, French and Italian is remarkable.

The humour, difficult to hear from the balcony, was ably communicated by her body language.

[WOW]

I think she warmed up and the second half was much better. But very enjoyable overall and ended with a showstopper to send us all home happy. Which she did.

Did anyone else notice the number of empty seats? We moved down from the balcony after the interval to superb seats in the dress circle.

[Sub opera]

Am I the only one who thought she shouldn't have spoken at all? And that in recitals artists should refrain from engaging the public other than through their art?

[AnnieR]

IM - This from her Wikipedia entry: "Fleming has a notable sense of humor. She appeared on the children's show Sesame Street singing a lively rendition of "Caro nome" from Rigoletto, replacing the traditional Italian text with lyrics intended to aid children learning to count."

Maybe you can find a link? I can't.

About her German: I thought I detected a couple of mispronunciations: "schient" for "scheint" for example, though maybe the programme was wrong, not her.

Unfortunately her French wasn't clear enough to judge. Nice concert, though.
***********************************************
Intermezzo replies - she did make the odd mistake with the words, though the ones I noticed were errors of memory rather than pronunciation. Like many singers, she does sometimes substitute an 'ee' sound for an 'eye' to keep the tone consistent.

[John]

Enjoy!: http://youtu.be/IPdP7XJdvlM

What a fabulous voice!

[operagooner]

Sounds like it was a wonderful concert. Sky Arts showed her in La Traviata at ROH recently (from 2009?); she looked and sounded amazing, apart from some close-ups of overacting that you only get on the telly. Best Violetta since Georghiu in 1994.

[Matthew]

Dear Sub opera, yes you are the only one who thought she should not have spoken.

[sjt]

Yes.

[sub_opera]

Dear Matthew and sjt

It was a rhetorical question that indicated my personal taste. For me, and for my small group, both her talking and her coughing in synch with the audience broke the spell a little. Personal opinion, of course.

I did not expect either of you to speak for the ENTIRE audience - a claim you can't surely substantiate.