It’s quite a surreal sight to behold; a major star comes to our shores for a two-night performance, holds a press conference and all of 5 people from two organizations shows up. We’re not exactly sure whether the media wasn’t informed of this event or they simply just did not care. Anyway, their loss became our first exclusive with a major artist in a long time. The other group from Channel NewsAsia already had an actual one-on-one booked for later, so they were pretty quiet and left the floor to us.

Its been about two years since I last met Renee, in December 2004 when I visited New York and caught her in Rodelinda as well as an autograph session a few days later. (see photo and article: Journey to the Met). Needless to say I am thrilled at meeting one of my favorite artists on home-ground.

THE PRESS CONFERENCE

The event took place at the Fullerton Hotel on Thursday 15 March 2006 at 5.30pm, in a small conference room that was playing music videos made from her Sacred Songs recording. Inkpot editor Derek came with a friend, and then She appeared; casually strolling into the room without much fanfare or entourage. She seemed a bit under the weather, a slight weariness etched on her face as she performed her duties; posing for cameras on an elaborately decorated couch, sipping white wine while fielding questions. Nonetheless, Renee’s reputation as a media darling was in fine form; her attire, hair and make-up in perfect condition and ready for every camera in sight. She took her time to gaze at each camera, giving every photographer a perfect shot, while making sure that every question has an interesting reply. Quotes come fast and free with hardly any prompting, and she kindly filled out awkward silences with questions of her own.

Parveen Sandhu, a young executive working at the newly set-up IMG Artists Singapore, emcee-ed the event and got proverbial ball rolling. How did Renee find Singapore? ”I love how fresh the city is, I’m an avid gardener and I’m so impressed by how green and fresh the city is. It's a glowing city!"

Then it was up to us, the paltry group of reporters on the floor. I got up to the mic: “Hi Renee, I’ll start with a simple question; what can we expect from your program?” “This concert will be an exploration of the song repertoire; we’ll be performing works by Schubert, Brahms, Handel, Puccini and Korngold.” And least we forget her collaborator, “Hartmut Höll is a leading interpreter of this music (lieder and art songs), I studied with him when I was a student and it is my pleasure to be performing with him… I heard in Bangkok that you guys have a lovely hall, its called Victoria isn’t it? (Turns to Parveen, who nods)”

She further discusses her upcoming events, prompted by Derek and myself: Performances of her specialized Mozart and Strauss are on the calendar, with Arabella, Die Rosenkavalier and Cappricio in Vienna scheduled for this year and 2008. She also discusses her recent run of Onegins at the Met and the record audience turnout due to the HD Broadcasts, one of many innovations developed by new general manager Peter Gelb.

Then comes the discussion of bel canto: “recently, I’ve made a count on a plane, and amazingly the number of bel canto roles I’ve sung actually equaled my number of Mozart roles!” This is also an area that she plans to explore further, with Armida already scheduled for the Met next year. “Its an opera composed for one soprano, two basses and six tenors! Casting’s gonna be a problem” she chuckles.

Which led to the question on every opera internet blogger’s list: Is she really going to take on the sacred-cow of opera, Norma?

" There have been a few discussions but so far nothing’s been confirmed. There are plans to do a concert performance, (which will be) in Tanglewood in 2008, but nothings been fixed yet”. Is she excited to be doing the role? “I think its an exciting role and I will probably do it in a more lyrical manner, not making her too fierce but concentrating more on her love and heartbreak.”

And if she does decide to sing Norma, how does she feel about the inevitable comparisons with Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland? “Oh, terrified, absolutely terrified!” she deadpans, but stresses, “It’s a really big risk (to be singing Norma), but you need to take risks or else you will not be a very interesting artist.”

And then, Renee turned the tables by asking us a question: What is the classical scene like here? Is there an appreciation for classical music? Perhaps she was affected by the press turnout, or it was merely out of curiosity. Our CNA anchor assured her that while audiences may not be as responsive, we definitely appreciate it. Derek countered that people were yelling “bravo”s at Bryn Terfel’s recent concert while I added that Singapore has a professional orchestra and opera company, so there’s definitely an audience. “Oh you do?” she responded in surprise upon finding that we have an opera company. It may be wishful thinking but perhaps she might just be inspired to try out her Norma here…

Perhaps if I had known that I would be holding court most of the time, I might have prepared more questions for her; including topics based on her recent public show of support for Alagna’s well-publicised La Scala walkout, to how she finds the taste of durians, and perhaps test the waters by inquiring about her alleged relationship with a twenty-something year-old musician from an American symphony that has been spreading online (then again, maybe not.) Instead we traded topics on who she thinks will be ‘The New Renee’ (since she was previously known as ‘The New Kiri’). “That’s really for the public to decide”. Nonetheless, she is excited that a promising crop of young artists are taking part in the Met roster, naming Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazon, Nicole Corbell and oddly Nathalie Dessay as young-un’s to look out for. The event ended in about ten minutes with Derek’s question: “If you were a man, what role would you like to play?” “Lensky”, was her quick response, “Just for that aria.” After that, her small entourage came to herd her to the day’s later events, but not before one more photo (above - the editor, Ms Renee Fleming and the writer)

By Steven Ang

 

Our Awards	Write for us!	Writers' Profiles	Martha Argerich	Contact Us!	Random Review

All original texts are copyrighted. Please seek permission from the Classical Editor
if you wish to reproduce/quote Inkpot material.