The Inner Voice - A Great Book On The Life Of An Opera Star By Soprano Renee Fleming
I've just finished The Inner Voice - The Making Of A Singer, by golden-voiced opera soprano Renee Fleming, internationally acclaimed star of the Metropolitan opera and all the world's great opera houses. It's an absorbing and fascinating look into the glamorous but far from easy life of a great opera singer, and the long and difficult road to success.
In her book , Fleming shows herslef to be anything but the stereotypical vain, spoiled and egotistical prima donna. In fact she is a down to earth and highly intelligent woman, and a very likable one,too, well-respected by her coleagues in the high pressure opera world. She's a regular gal ! We also learn how she combines marriag,divorce and motherhood with a hectic schedule of international perfoming. Fleming has two young daughters, now teenagers.
The soprano grew up in Rochester New York, the daughter of two singing teachers, and was exposed to classical music and singing from childhood on. She seems to have been born into singing. She studied voice at the State University of New York at Potsdam, and did graduate work at Juilliard and further studies in Europe. Her mentors included the now retired Italian soprano Renata Scotto and others, and she learned an enormous amount from them.
She tells of her often difficult vocal studies, developing a solid technique , working out the flaws inn her singing, and the difficult life of an aspiring young opera singer, with all the cut throat competition and constant auditioning. As a musician myself who lived a rather similar life , I can really identify with all this! But she won the prestigious Metropolitan opera auditions, and her career gained momentum, staritng with smaller roles and working her way up to leading ones.
She gets to work with and befriend the world's greatest opera singers such as Placido Domingo, and work with great conductors such as James Levine and the late Sir Georg Solti, who became her mentor and made memorable recordings with her. She also began to sing recitals of art songs with pino all over the world. The contant travellling is a real hassle. If you think it's tough when you have to fly occaisionally, just think what constant flying is like !
She got an exclusive recording contract with Decca recordings, and has made many best-selling recordings such as Dvorak''s Rusalka, which became her signature role, and the operas of Richard Strauss, which contain so much gorgeous music for soprano, and much more. There are even crossover recordings.
The Inner Voice is published by Penguin books, and you can find more information about this wonderful singer at her website reneefleming.com