Renee Fleming: Opera Meets Rock

On Tuesday of this week my dear friend Mariana Ramirez (who also happens to be an opera singer) and I went to see Renee Fleming in recital at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Hall Concert Hall (whew! what a mouthful!) in Costa Mesa. Those who know me, know that I am a HUGE fan of Renee Fleming. Since I am also classified as a full lyric soprano, I listen to Renee sing all the pieces I am doing to learn them. I am in NO WAY saying I sound like her because I don't but I definitely aspire to be as good as her.

Mariana came over around 5ish for dinner at my place (poor thing was stuck in traffic). We had cevieche tostadas (lemon cured fish) for dinner. Afterwards I had fun doing her makeup. We realized we were running late so I changed and we went out the door. Luckily traffic there wasn't that bad. We arrived to the hall which looked like a red carpet premiere.
We went to will call and picked up our tickets then scurried over to the elevator and to our seats. When we sat down we thought that we would miss a part of the concert but Renee Fleming ran really late. She opened up with "Adieu, Notre Petite Table" from Manon by Massenet and ended the classical set with "Vissi d'Arte" from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini which then an intermission followed to set up for the next part of her recital which she would sing songs from her album Dark Hope which is an alternative album. During the intermission Mariana and I decided to look around the hall. It was so gorgeous!

She sang "Endlessly", "No One's Gonna Love You", "Soul Meets Body", "Hallelujah", and "In Your Eyes" (Peter Gabriel version). The crowd waved lit cellphones and sang along with her. I didn't feel like I was in an opera recital at all anymore. Afterwards, Renee sang an encore of "Summertime" from Porgy and the Bees, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the Wizard of Oz and "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Gianni Schicchi which was Renee Segerstrom's favorite aria (both Henry and Renee were in attendance). The recital ended around 10:30.

After the recital, Mariana and I came back to my place and had Strawberry Banana tea with poptarts and then she had to leave. All in all I had a great time with Mariana. I think that with Renee Fleming doing a cross-over album, classically trained sopranos (like myself) who want to go into heavy metal will be a bit more welcomed at least I hope this is the case. Im just sad that Leigh Anne couldn't make it. I'll probably have a blog post dedicated to her :]

-With <3