American “Queen of Opera” René Fleming visits Latvia with a concert and master classes / Article

Opera singer René Fleming has arrived in Latvia, whose talents will be enjoyed by the Dzintari Concert Hall on August 28, but before that, thanks to the festival program “Riga Jurmala” and the US Embassy in Latvia, the legendary opera singer led a singing master class in the Grand Guild.

Asked about the mistakes she made during her career, the singer says: “Too many mistakes to list. I did everything wrong, so it took me a long time to learn to sing properly. It takes a lot of time! Some people are lucky, they are born with a talent given by nature, unfortunately I was not one of them. “

René Fleming began her solo career as a jazz singer, but turned to opera music and, working hard, became one of the world’s most outstanding sopranos. She can be proud of numerous awards, including four Grammy Awards. On August 27, under the direction of the opera diva, two chosen ones – Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music student Daniils Kuzmins and opera singer Ilze Grēvele-Skaraine, had the opportunity to improve their skills and knowledge thanks to the educational program of the festival “Rīga Jūrmala”.

Singer Ilze Grēvele-Skaraine, who is also a lecturer at the Department of Early Music at JVLMA, says: “The most confusing is the beginning – go on stage and start singing. but then the most valuable is when that first period of embarrassment is over, you have sung the first variant, then when working with you, the exercises that it all works, it allows you to get rid of, it allows you to connect the right muscles. Let’s not say that it was something super new that is being said, but the way in which such a great person, such a great personality says something, makes us look at their exercise even differently and also work even more responsibly. ”

Daniil Kuzmin, the other participant of the master class, reveals: “The most valuable are the small suggestions that I already knew, but how to apply them correctly in a particular piece and then in life, it definitely helps. [..] In fact, I had thought that she was much tougher and much more condemning, that she would not allow herself to express itself so freely and speak so openly, but on a different level, but it turned out to be very kind, very pleasant. ”

While on stage, René Fleming perceives the audience as the most direct partner, but the songs are visualized and compared to paintings: “I see landscapes. For example, when I sing a long phrase, I see its outline, its shape. I think everyone imagines something different – someone sees colors, someone just listens to sound.

But we are people, we experience art with the whole nervous system, the whole body and our imagination, so it’s great to be a singer.

It’s completely free, we don’t have to put our desired tone into action, we just hear it, and if we’re well trained, it just comes out. ”

On the evening of August 28, René Fleming together with the world-famous Royal Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, conducted by Daniel Harding, will perform for the first time in Latvia – in Dzintari Concert Hall.

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