Fleming, now 41, chose opera over jazz because, she says, "it suits my personality more." Today "she is the best soprano in the world," says conductor-composer Andre Previn, whose assessment is seconded by opera critics and afficionados internationally. This year Fleming has triumphed as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni on opening night at New York City's Metropolitan Opera and as the Marschallin in Der Rosen-kavalier; she has traveled in a recital tour, appeared on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center and released four CDs, including Renée Fleming, a top-selling collection of arias.
The singer, who was divorced in May after a 10-year marriage to actor Richard Lee Ross, 46, says she has noticed "a breaking out this year in terms of public awareness." But her favorite review of late, she says, has been for an achievement in her private life: The principal of the school her two daughters (ages 8 and 5) attend told her, "I'm so impressed that you do what you do, and yet your children lead such normal lives." In fact, because Fleming knows her schedule for the next five years, she can plan her life at home in Connecticut accordingly.
Her recent success is even sweeter, considering that only two years ago Fleming was booed at La Scala in Milan while performing in Lucrezia Borgia and says that she "felt really uncomfortable" with her increasing fame. "A lot of what's happened to me in 2000 is the result of having worked through that," she says. Now Fleming can work toward something else. Next year she plans to record a jazz CD—with Illinois Jacquet.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
