Renee Fleming: By Request

Amazon.com

This is a compilation--plus three previously unreleased selections--of some of the glorious Renée Fleming's finest work, 15 selections covering 13 composers. The rose-in-full-bloom quality of the voice is staggeringly beautiful: Her rendition of Rusalka's "Song to the Moon" is justly famous and is, alone, worth the price of this CD. Other highlights are Marietta's Lied from Korngold's Die tote stadt, an odd arrangement of the aria from Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasilerias No. 5, Manon's Gavotte, and a knock-down-gorgeous reading of Gershwin's "Summertime." The three new recordings are of Violetta's big first-act scene from La traviata, which features one of the most perfect trills heard since Joan Sutherland, a thrilling Cäcilie (R. Strauss), and a version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" which is so over the-top that it might make you look away in embarrassment. On the basis of this CD, one would have to acknowledge that Fleming is more interested in--and more successful at--pure singing than she is at character delineation (Butterfly sounds oddly like Wally who sounds too much like Norma), but it's not hard to tell why she's a superstar. Her voice and technique are one in a million. --Robert Levine

Product Description

A new CD celebrating the greatest American soprano of our time. Renee' Fleming follows her Grammy winning Bel Canto CD with a collection of popular arias and songs celebrating her artistic range and talent. Includes three tracks newly recorded for this album., ISBN13: B0000C3ICO ISBN10: B0000C3ICO Material Type: audioCD