Thoughts on Fleming, Armida & HD Transmissions

Renee Fleming is, amongst other things,  a thoughtful artist.  Whether in her book on singing or in interviews (as the one here), she comes across as a passionate singer intent on spreading the word about opera to all. She has followed her goal magnificently.

I have followed Fleming’s career with enthusiasm since first hearing the live recording she made of Rossini’s Armida at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro in 1993. I was struck by the beauty and glamor in the voice, the amazing agility of her instrument in this florid music and  a vocal range that rose to the heights and plunged to the depths with equal thrill.  In 1997, I heard Fleming  at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York in her only other performance of Armida after Pesaro; it confirmed that in person  she was every bit as accomplished  as her recording purported.

So, it was great interest and a bit of angst  that I attended her current run at the Met of Armida ( a Met premier)  earlier this week (13 years after Carnegie Hall) and then watched the HD transmission of Armida on Saturday at the Rialto.

It is always amazing to me what an actress Fleming is!  Seemingly,  reserved and cautious off stage and just plain awkward as an interviewer at intermissions in the HD transmissions, she literally abandons her own persona as she takes on  Manon, Violetta, the Marschallin or the sorceress Armida on stage.  The voice has lost some of its agility and definitely some of the extremes of range from 13 years ago,  but that is to be expected.  The beauty of voice remains and what it  has gained is color, nuance, interpretation and a certain freedom to  sacrifice perfection when needed  for expression.

As wonderful as the HD Transmission is ( and it adds much to opera), I was pleased to find that for me it does not replace or exceed the experience of being at the Met and hearing great performances live.  As I sat through the performance at the Rialto on Saturday,   I appreciated the intimacy that HD  brings to the audience by making every seat the best in the house.  But HD also equalizes the voices too much and separates them out from the orchestra.  As a result,  one misses how vocal volume and projection and vocal  blend with the orchestra  can thrill and mesmerize best  in the context of a live in theater experience.

It’s a happy day for opera that we have both experiences available.  And although Armida was mostly about Fleming, Lawrence Brownlee was a standout about whom I’ll have more to say.