Renee Fleming famous quotes

I enjoy the more floaty, exposed, elegant singing.
-- Renee Fleming

#Singing #Enjoy #Exposed

I haven't really been able to transfer into that extraordinarily other worldly creature, other than I hope on stage.
-- Renee Fleming

#Able #Stage #Transfers

When a human being without amplification makes a sound that is high and loud, it is almost unworldly.
-- Renee Fleming

#Sound #Amplification #Loud

A lot of bad behavior in singers is caused by nerves.
-- Renee Fleming

#Nerves #Singers #Behavior

I would love to do more private concerts.
-- Renee Fleming

#Concerts

My philosophy is that the people around us are there doing as much work if not more work behind the scenes and they're the last people you would ever be unkind to, so I hope I'm not a diva off stage.
-- Renee Fleming

#Philosophy #People #Behind The Scenes

Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.
-- Renee Fleming

#America #Jazz #Niche

When I sing, the sound is a totally different range, color, all of it. It's all about the breath. You take in a breath and you make a sound.
-- Renee Fleming

#Color #Sound #Different

My whole career I played these girls sort of 18 to 23.
-- Renee Fleming

#Girl #Careers

For my own singing, I used to be attracted by the baroque, the flashier the better, but now I prefer a simpler, purer style.
-- Renee Fleming

#Style #Singing #Used

For years, I had no time for exploratory travel.
-- Renee Fleming

#Years

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Mean #Progress #Work In Progress

I think singing it when its done well is extremely natural. It feels great.
-- Renee Fleming

#Thinking #Singing #Done

The first thing I did when I made a little bit of money as a singer was to buy myself an amber necklace. This is often the way we put together our lives, adding the striking qualities of others into our own character.
-- Renee Fleming

#Character #Quality #Together

One of my timesaving habits is to save all of my magazines and junk mail for airplane trips. I walk on the plane with a very heavy bundle, but by the time the trip is over, it can all be thrown away.
-- Renee Fleming

#Airplane #Magazines #Mail

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#House #Opera #Want

For a while it was hard for me to say no to work.
-- Renee Fleming

Every singer eventually gets around to a Christmas disc.
-- Renee Fleming

#Christmas #Singers #Discs

Being steeped in the process of learning and exploring keeps me from becoming too nervous. Partly it's about not getting bored.
-- Renee Fleming

#Bored #Becoming #Nervous

I have a certain image that's more classic, and I'm happy to stay out of the fray.
-- Renee Fleming

#Classic #Certain #Fray

I have had a very difficult time with stage fright; it undermines your well-being and peace of mind, and it can also threaten your livelihood.
-- Renee Fleming

#Mind #Difficult Times #Stage

I was always a very good student.
-- Renee Fleming

#Students #Very Good

At this stage in my career, I don't have to take any big risks. You want to take a calculated risk, not one that leads to people saying 'yes, but there was that one time when she made that big mistake.' It's always a shame when that happens, especially if you've gotten by for decades without anything hugely tragic.
-- Renee Fleming

#Mistake #Careers #People

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Simple #Emotional #Grandfather

Because everything about the voice interests me, I felt it would be fascinating to learn a completely different style of singing.
-- Renee Fleming

#Voice #Style #Singing

Contrary to the norm, as my technique improved my voice became higher.
-- Renee Fleming

#Voice #Technique #Norm

I'm reserved, so I've always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that.
-- Renee Fleming

#Opening Up #Way #Jazz

I'm not a reactionary.
-- Renee Fleming

With classical singing you have to put out so much air - you project, you emit force.
-- Renee Fleming

#Air #Singing #Force

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Art #Thinking #Media

I cannot imagine a more satisfying calling than my own: beauty, humanity, and history every day, combined with the cathartic joy of singing.
-- Renee Fleming

#Joy #Humanity #Singing

I'm American. I'm eclectic. I'm going to follow my musical passions. And if people don't like it, and it hurts my legacy, I'm not going to worry about that.
-- Renee Fleming

#Hurt #Passion #People

I'm lucky - I can do two things at once.
-- Renee Fleming

#Two #Lucky

I want to get out of the major opera houses.
-- Renee Fleming

#House #Want #Opera

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Mean #Singers #Opera

My worry is that opera will become an historic art form as opposed to a living, breathing thing.
-- Renee Fleming

#Art #Breathing #Worry

There's no performance where I never have to think about setting up a phrase or making a technical adjustment while I'm performing.
-- Renee Fleming

#Thinking #Phrases #Performing

Well, any time Im preparing for a performance or even a rehearsal, its 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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Believe #Athlete #Voice

I've always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.
-- Renee Fleming

#Artist #Risk #Musical

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Mother #Brother #Littles

No voice teacher can be all things to all people. You have to gain information from whatever sources you can. You have to listen.
-- Renee Fleming

#Teacher #Voice #People

Having to travel so much plays havoc with your personal life.
-- Renee Fleming

#Play #Havoc #Personal Life

I am so envious of my colleagues from 100 years ago who only sang new works, they hardly ever sang revivals.
-- Renee Fleming

#Years #Envious #Revival

I do everything in the third person. Performance is about being someone else.
-- Renee Fleming

#Third Person #Persons #Performances

I don't like to sing loud.
-- Renee Fleming

#Loud

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Song #Stories #World

I don't want to record anything unless it can be great and genuinely interesting.
-- Renee Fleming

#Interesting #Records #Want

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.
-- Renee Fleming

#Roles #Singers #Young

I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos.
-- Renee Fleming

#Talking #Video #Singers

I'm not exactly an angry young person.
-- Renee Fleming

#Young #Persons #Angry

My parents discussed singing every night over the dinner table; I had a tremendous music education.
-- Renee Fleming

#Night #Parent #Singing

I think singing is one of the most natural things that human beings do, but it's difficult.
-- Renee Fleming

#Thinking #Singing #Natural

Very few opera singers in history have been able to cross into popular music.
-- Renee Fleming

#Opera #Singers #Able

I want to keep my voice young, with nothing heavy.
-- Renee Fleming

#Voice #Want #Young

I have not changed with the accomplishments. I've remained the same. If I had changed, great. You know, but I haven't.
-- Renee Fleming

#Accomplishment #Changed