“I think opera has gained a kind of glamorous appeal. It’s a live performance that aligns all of the arts, and when it is represented in the media, in film in particular, it is presented as something that is really a special event, whether it’s a great date or something that’s just hugely romantic.”
― Renee Fleming
“At this stage in my career, I don’t have to take any big risks. You want to take a calculated risk, not one that leads to people saying ‘yes, but there was that one time when she made that big mistake.’ It’s always a shame when that happens, especially if you’ve gotten by for decades without anything hugely tragic.”
― Renee Fleming
“For a while it was hard for me to say no to work.”
― Renee Fleming
“I don’t like to sing loud.”
― Renee Fleming
“I do everything in the third person. Performance is about being someone else.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’ve always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.”
― Renee Fleming
“My parents discussed singing every night over the dinner table; I had a tremendous music education.”
― Renee Fleming
“I don’t want to be somebody who stands still and sings pretty. Each song is a world. Each song is a story. I don’t achieve nearly what I want.”
― Renee Fleming
“I want to keep my voice young, with nothing heavy.”
― Renee Fleming
“No voice teacher can be all things to all people. You have to gain information from whatever sources you can. You have to listen.”
― Renee Fleming
“I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos.”
― Renee Fleming
“I enjoy the more floaty, exposed, elegant singing.”
― Renee Fleming
“My mother was the worst kind of stage mother. She would make me and my younger sister and brother little duckling costumes and put us in kiddie shows.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’m not a reactionary.”
― Renee Fleming
“I would love to do more private concerts.”
― Renee Fleming
“I have a certain image that’s more classic, and I’m happy to stay out of the fray.”
― Renee Fleming
“For years, I had no time for exploratory travel.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’m reserved, so I’ve always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that.”
― Renee Fleming
“With classical singing you have to put out so much air – you project, you emit force.”
― Renee Fleming
“I learned so many roles so quickly as a young singer, I thought it was time to come back to them and make them better – deeper, more nuanced.”
― Renee Fleming
“I am so envious of my colleagues from 100 years ago who only sang new works, they hardly ever sang revivals.”
― Renee Fleming
“Every singer eventually gets around to a Christmas disc.”
― Renee Fleming
“When a human being without amplification makes a sound that is high and loud, it is almost unworldly.”
― Renee Fleming
“It is always fragile, being a parent.”
― Renee Fleming
“For my own singing, I used to be attracted by the baroque, the flashier the better, but now I prefer a simpler, purer style.”
― Renee Fleming
“Contrary to the norm, as my technique improved my voice became higher.”
― Renee Fleming
“I think touring is hard.”
― Renee Fleming
“Opera is really fun.”
― Renee Fleming
“Because everything about the voice interests me, I felt it would be fascinating to learn a completely different style of singing.”
― Renee Fleming
“My parents were both high-school music teachers.”
― Renee Fleming
“Having to travel so much plays havoc with your personal life.”
― Renee Fleming
“My worry is that opera will become an historic art form as opposed to a living, breathing thing.”
― Renee Fleming
“I have had a very difficult time with stage fright; it undermines your well-being and peace of mind, and it can also threaten your livelihood.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’m not exactly an angry young person.”
― Renee Fleming
“There’s no performance where I never have to think about setting up a phrase or making a technical adjustment while I’m performing.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’m rarely singing in English.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’m American. I’m eclectic. I’m going to follow my musical passions. And if people don’t like it, and it hurts my legacy, I’m not going to worry about that.”
― Renee Fleming
“I was constantly being pushed toward a European ideal of what it means to be a classical or opera singer, let’s say in the Renata Tebaldi mode. I reject that.”
― Renee Fleming
“Being steeped in the process of learning and exploring keeps me from becoming too nervous. Partly it’s about not getting bored.”
― Renee Fleming
“I don’t want to record anything unless it can be great and genuinely interesting.”
― Renee Fleming
“I want to get out of the major opera houses.”
― Renee Fleming
“A lot of performers don’t want to leave the circuit, the European opera house circuit, partly because most singers don’t sing many concerts, or at least not while they are in their prime.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’ve spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate, very simple and emotional, about that music.”
― Renee Fleming
“I was always a very good student.”
― Renee Fleming
“Some of my first teachers were incredibly tough. You could never sing more than three words without being stopped and having to do it over 20 times. I loved that – that sort of process of dissecting and trying to figure out and master this incredibly mysterious instrument.”
― Renee Fleming
“Everybody’s a work in progress. I’m a work in progress. I mean, I’ve never arrived… I’m still learning all the time.”
― Renee Fleming
“Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it’s our music. It’s the national music of America.”
― Renee Fleming
“Very few opera singers in history have been able to cross into popular music.”
― Renee Fleming
“One of my timesaving habits is to save all of my magazines and junk mail for airplane trips. I walk on the plane with a very heavy bundle, but by the time the trip is over, it can all be thrown away.”
― Renee Fleming
“I’m lucky – I can do two things at once.”
― Renee Fleming
“Learning operatic roles is ongoing, and I find that I can learn on the train or subway, during a manicure, getting my hair done, and even while driving if I only look at the score at red lights.”
― Renee Fleming
“I think singing it when it’s done well is extremely natural. It feels great.”
― Renee Fleming
“I think singing is one of the most natural things that human beings do, but it’s difficult.”
― Renee Fleming
“Well, any time I’m preparing for a performance or even a rehearsal, it’s as if in a way, like any other athletes, these are muscles that support the vocal cords which are just I believe cartilage. It demands a kind of constant warming up and a constant feeling of where is the voice today.”
― Renee Fleming
“I have not changed with the accomplishments. I’ve remained the same. If I had changed, great. You know, but I haven’t.”
― Renee Fleming
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