Dear Linda:
Thank you for your review of the Proms concert featuring Renee Fleming. It is a pleasure to read as complete a review as you gave us, filled with your own ideas and opinions but not overflowing with judgements or praise.
In recent recordings of Ms. Fleming I, too, have become concerned with the "mannered" quality of her singing and the tendency to become more important than the music she is performing. I bought her Schubert CD and I have not been able to listen to all of it after having it for more than 6 months. She not only badly distorts the music but, in many cases, does not sing well. The accompanist represents that school of Lieder singing which finds it necessary to "show" us every musical nuance and emotional content. For me the whole album is an example of over-kill.
I consider Renee Fleming as a real gift to the singing art and it is my hope that she can find her way more clearly through the maze of performance demands and recording mistakes.
Leontyne Price once said that the song recital "kept her honest". I guess it is true.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice and Vocal Pedagogy, Emeritus Director of Opera-Theatre, 1987-1997 School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ
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