Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 10 - Renée Fleming

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 14 Every appearance by Renée Fleming at the Lyric Opera House is an occasion for rejoicing. It’s particularly momentous this season, as the internationally celebrated American soprano, a company favorite for more than three decades, has brought to Chicago Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene , one of the most fascinating projects of her entire career. It’s also her long-awaited first solo recital on the Lyric stage. The meaning of “Anthropocene” is not entirely settled, but one online source defines it as “the current geological age, where human activities have become the main force shaping the Earth’s environment, climate, and even its geological makeup.” In response to that all- encompassing reality, Fleming determined to focus this recital on nature, in all its beauty and mystery. The result is this captivating, deeply thoughtful program, previously presented with great success in numerous prestigious venues nationwide. “When we were all cut off from our work, I’d recently moved to Virginia, right outside of D.C., and I fell in love with being outside — gardening, and taking walks in what is an extremely verdant area,” she says of how the recital was conceived. “I’d always thought about the fact that, historically speaking — at least, in my repertoire — the song literature I’d loved and performed really connected the poetry not only to every aspect of the human experience, but also through this lens of nature.” The recital itself grew from the success of the project that these experiences inspired, Voice of Nature , the 2021 album Fleming recorded with Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the piano. The disc features a good deal of contemporary music, including several pieces commissioned by Fleming. Contemplating the environment, biodiversity, and sustainability confirmed the soprano’s realization that “we’re not so connected to nature now.” She kept those concerns foremost in her mind in the album. When it won a Grammy, she says, “I thought, I want to take this on the road — and I wanted to do it with media.” A random dinner party introduction led to a meeting with the head of the National Geographic Society. “It was like a one-minute phone call,” Fleming remembers. “He said, ‘I definitely want to do this — we’ll make your films,’” and thus the path was clear for creating the program’s exciting visual component. In short order Fleming was able to structure her recital, with every piece in the first half of the program having a clear connection to nature. The basic framework also had flexibility, allowing Fleming to switch out particular pieces easily whenever she felt a new addition was needed. The opening song, Hazel Dickens’s “Pretty Bird,” is folk-like in character, and mesmerizing when sung a cappella . “People are surprised that I’m thinking and working in this style,” says Fleming. “But there’s something about folk music that has always touched me immediately.” Another highlight of the recital will be one of Handel’s most breathtaking arias, “Care selve,” the only familiar music from his opera Atalanta . The composer “very often uses nature to help characters work through problems,” Fleming observes. “To me, it was completely logical to include it in this program.” The sheer loveliness of particular pieces is, not unexpectedly, an essential element of this recital; it plays a role not just with the Atalanta aria but also with “Baïlèro” from Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne . Fleming admits she’s performing the latter simply because “it’s just so beautiful! They’re talking to each other across a river, but despite that distance there’s something charming and intimate about it at the same time.” Every appearance by Renée Fleming at the Lyric Opera House is an occasion for rejoicing. It’s particularly momentous this season, as the internationally celebrated American soprano, a company favorite for more than three decades, has brought to Chicago Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene , one of the most fascinating projects of her entire career. It’s also her long-awaited first solo recital on the Lyric stage. The meaning of “Anthropocene” is not entirely settled, but one online source defines it as “the current geological age, where human activities have become the main force shaping the Earth’s environment, climate, and even its geological makeup.” In response to that all- encompassing reality, Fleming determined to focus this recital on nature, in all its beauty and mystery. The result is this captivating, deeply thoughtful program, previously presented with great success in numerous prestigious venues nationwide. “When we were all cut off from our work, I’d recently moved to Virginia, right outside of D.C., and I fell in love with being outside — gardening, and taking walks in what is an extremely verdant area,” she says of how the recital was conceived. “I’d always thought about the fact that, historically speaking — at least, in my repertoire — the song literature I’d loved and performed really connected the poetry not only to every aspect of the human experience, but also through this lens of nature.” The recital itself grew from the success of the project that these experiences inspired, Voice of Nature , the 2021 album Fleming recorded with Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the piano. The disc features a good deal of contemporary music, including several Back to Nature Renée Fleming returns to Lyric with an exceptionally thought-provoking recital By Roger Pines Marvin Joseph