Zitat des Tages von 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.
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.
My worry is that opera will become an historic art form as opposed to a living, breathing thing.
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.
My parents were both high-school music teachers.
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.
Opera is really fun.
I don't like to sing loud.
I was always a very good student.
I'm not a reactionary.
I do everything in the third person. Performance is about being someone else.
I think singing is one of the most natural things that human beings do, but it's difficult.
Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.
No voice teacher can be all things to all people. You have to gain information from whatever sources you can. You have to listen.
I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos.
Because everything about the voice interests me, I felt it would be fascinating to learn a completely different style of singing.
Contrary to the norm, as my technique improved my voice became higher.
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.
I am so envious of my colleagues from 100 years ago who only sang new works, they hardly ever sang revivals.
It is always fragile, being a parent.
There's no performance where I never have to think about setting up a phrase or making a technical adjustment while I'm performing.
I would love to do more private concerts.
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.
I'm reserved, so I've always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that.
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.
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.
Very few opera singers in history have been able to cross into popular music.
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.
I think singing it when it's done well is extremely natural. It feels great.
I have not changed with the accomplishments. I've remained the same. If I had changed, great. You know, but I haven't.
I've always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.
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.
With classical singing you have to put out so much air - you project, you emit force.
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.
I want to keep my voice young, with nothing heavy.
I'm rarely singing in English.