Renee Fleming Quotes

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.

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.

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

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

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

If I have to hold a note for a long time, I imagine it as moving and spinning, for the note has to have life. In a way, a singer actually refreshes a note with every beat that it's held.

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

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.

I was always a very good student.

In a way, being an opera singer is like being a very romantic sixteen-year-old who falls in love with great passion and conviction every month.

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

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

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

I'm not a reactionary.

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

An interpretation exists because of what we find between the notes.

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.

Learning operatic roles is ongoing, and I find that I can learn on the train or subway, during a manicure, getting my hair done, and even while driving if I only look at the score at red lights.