Faces to Watch in ’96 :...
Renee Fleming is a lirico-spinto soprano--the real, rare thing. She may still lack the vocal weight of a dramatic soprano, and she outgrew the simpering duties of a soubrette long ago.
She specializes in the in-between roles--challenges that require power modified by finesse, challenges predicated on long, arching lines traced in gleaming tones that can be filed down to a pianissimo shimmer.
The Met honored her this season with a coveted opening-night assignment: Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello” opposite Placido Domingo. She repeats it in a PBS telecast on Jan. 31. She conquered San Francisco this season as Dvorak’s poignant water-nymph, Rusalka (above, with Sergei Larin as the Prince), and makes her debut this summer in “Die Meistersinger” at the Wagnerian mecca of Bayreuth.
Born in Indiana, Pa., Fleming, 36, studied with exemplary spinto models--Arleen Auger, Renata Scotto and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
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