Renee Fleming sings.

Renée Fleming:

• Guilty Pleasures

‘Guilty Pleasures’ is a wonderful album featuring the beautiful voice of Renée Fleming. This CD has a selection of songs and arias featuring a great diversity of music, much of which we might never hear her sing on stage.

Two twentieth-century American composers offer the chance for Fleming to sing in English: the Irish folksong ‘Danny Boy’ and John Corigliano’s ‘The Ghosts of Versailles’.

Susan Graham joins Ms. Fleming for the celebrated ‘Flower Duet’ from Lakmé.

Sebastian Lang-Lessing conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in a program that ranges from Berlioz, Dvořák, Smetana, Wagner and Rachmaninov to Canteloube, Delibes and Massenet.

Here are the song titles:

Berlioz:

• Villanelle (from Les nuits d’été, Op. 7)

Canteloube:

• La Delaïssado (2nd series, no.4) from Chants d’Auvergne

• Malurous qu’o uno fenno (3rd series, no.5) from Chants d’Auvergne

Corigliano:

• Once there was a golden bird (from The Ghosts of Versailles)

Delibes:

• Les filles de Cadix

• Lakmé: Dôme épais (Flower Duet), with Susan Graham (mezzo)

Duparc:

• Phidylé

Dvorak:

• Za tihlou Gazelou (from Armida)

Falla:

• Nana (No. 5 from Siete canciones populares españolas)

• Canción (No. 6 from Siete canciones populares españolas)

Rachmaninov:

• Twilight, Op.21 No. 3

Refice:

• Ombra di Nube

Smetana:

• Vendulka”s Lullaby (from The Kiss)

Strauss, J, II:

• Frag mich oft (Walzer aus Wien)

Tchaikovsky:

• Undina’s Aria (from Undina)

trad.: Londonderry Air

Wagner:

• Träume (No. 5 from Wesendonck-Lieder)

Performed by Renée Fleming (soprano), with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Sebastian Lang-Lessing conducting

Here is the song, ‘UN FLAMBEAU, JEANETTE’ as performed by Renée Fleming, with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir:

And next, here is Renee Fleming, singing “I can smell the sea air”:

Finally, here is Renee Fleming, as she performs “Im Abendrot-In Twilight” by Richard Strauss:

Translation from the German text follows:

We’ve gone through joy and crisis Together, hand in hand,
And now we rest from wandering
Above the silent land.
The valleys slope around us,
The air is growing dark,
And dreamily, into the haze,
There still ascends two larks.
Come here, and let them flutter;
The time for sleep is soon.
We would not want to lose our way
In this great solitude.
O vast and silent peace!
So deep in twilight ruddiness,
We are so wander-weary –
Could this perchance be death? –Eichendorff

Tags: Renee Fleming, Guilty Pleasures, Richard Strauss, Berlioz, Dvorak, Wagner