Exclusive Portraits: Superstar Renée Fleming at Chicago Humanities

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

CHICAGO – When the word “Opera” is defined today, the person that would illustrate the word is Renée Fleming. The lyric soprano has done most major female opera roles, and has written a new book … “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” … and recently appeared at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

Renée Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. A significant portion of her career has been the performance of new music, including world premieres of operas, concert pieces, and songs composed for her by André Previn, Caroline Shaw, Kevin Puts, Anders Hillborg, Nico Muhly, Henri Dutilleux, Brad Mehldau, and Wayne Shorter. 

Renée Fleming at the Chicago Humanities Festival, May 8, 2024
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Renée Lynn Fleming was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and got her Masters of Music from the Eastman School at the University of Rochester. She gave her first performance in what would become a signature role … Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s “Le nozzle di Figaro” … in 1984. She continued her study with a Fulbright Scholarship and the Julliard School, won New York’s Metropolitan Opera auditions in 1988, and made her debut with the New York City Opera as Mimi in “La Boheme.”

Her notable opera roles over the years are numerous and legendary … but her signature roles include the aforementioned Countess Almaviva, Desdemona in Verdi’s ”Otello,” Violetta in Verdi’s ”La traviata,” the title role in Dvořák’s ”Rusalka,” the title roles in Massenet’s ”Manon and Thaïs,” Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s ”Eugene Onegin,” the title role in Richard Strauss’s ”Arabella,” the Marschallin in Strauss’s ”Der Rosenkavalier,” the Countess in Strauss’s ”Capriccio,” and Blanche DuBois in André Previn’s ”A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Ms. Fleming has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards and has won five times. In June 2023, she was one of the five artists recognized at the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors. Other notable honors won by Fleming have included the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur from the French government, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize and honorary membership in England’s Royal Academy of Music. 

Renée Fleming and Her New Book
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Renée Fleming has also been an advocate for the study of the relationship between music and health, as well as the utility of music in neuroscience research. On April 9, 2024, Fleming’s anthology “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” was published and has a collection of essays about the health benefits of music and the arts, by scientists from leading research institutions, practitioners, educators, arts leaders, musicians, artists and writers.

HollywoodChicago.com photographer Joe Arce got the Exclusive Portraits of Renée Fleming at her appearance at the Chicago Humanities Festival on May 8th, 2024.

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com