Carpenter 1 Sean K. Carpenter Sarah Farr MU251, Voice (Adv.

Beginner) August 2, y The Art of Renee Fleming - Renee Fleming

Rene Fleming warm soprano voice soars throughout her recently released album, The Art of Rene Fleming. The work covers genres including Broadway, jazz and classical, focusing on the latter. Throughout the album, Fleming uses her vocal prowess to create musical moments listeners may find difficult to forget. Fleming excels at the more classical pieces, where her training focuses. During the songs Vissi Darte, Vissi Darte and O Silver Moon, her operatic background becomes manifest, showing Fleming great abilities in dramatic pieces. Listeners might interpret many of her high notes, specifically during the aforementioned pieces, as having some vocal strain. In this case, her voice might be tiring for ears; however, these highly dramatic pieces are enhanced by this strain. In contrast, during more pieces of a more contemporary style, including Summertime and Amazing Grace, Flemings voice can feel out of place. Listeners might forget she is singing a Gershwin piece, believing she is still singing from an operatic work. Dynamically, Fleming shows great restrain, only leaving mezzo voce at critical moments during a piece. Her operatic background greatly affects her vibrato. When she puts vibrato on a note, her voice dominates over all other sound. Also, Flemings diction is excellent, relatively understandable compared to other singers of operatic training, but without over working words. She gives consonants without over emphasizing them. When Fleming performed any piece in The Art of Rene Fleming, she used countless

Carpenter 2 methods to bring artistic interpretation and dimension to the piece. In her interpretation of Bellinis Casta Diva, uses dynamics to describe the emotions felt by the character. During the piece, the character is praying. A majority of the piece is sung at mezzo piano, but go from pianissimo to fortissimo at critical points. Fleming often withholds vibrato from a note to establish emphasis in the given phrase. In this piece, she does it to create quiet moments of prayer. Throughout the piece, Fleming slowly crescendos on single note, which creates a feeling of pleading. Rene Flemings The Art of Rene Fleming is not a perfect work. Specifically, the contemporary pieces will possibly confuse the listener and they are inappropriate for her voice. However, the work displays the highlights and ability of an extraordinary vocalist. Fleming uses her talent and training to move the hearts and souls of her listeners.