In light of the operatic world's eagerness to project an image of hipness and currency in the early 2000s, Renée Fleming's Homage: The Age of the Diva could have seemed anachronistic or reactionary in its unabashed celebration of the past, especially coming from an artist that released recordings of contemporary song cycles and vocal jazz in the preceding year. Homage is draped in the iconography, history, and long-dormant repertory of a group of singers whose names are familiar only to opera aficionados: Emmy Destinn, ...
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In light of the operatic world's eagerness to project an image of hipness and currency in the early 2000s, Renée Fleming's Homage: The Age of the Diva could have seemed anachronistic or reactionary in its unabashed celebration of the past, especially coming from an artist that released recordings of contemporary song cycles and vocal jazz in the preceding year. Homage is draped in the iconography, history, and long-dormant repertory of a group of singers whose names are familiar only to opera aficionados: Emmy Destinn, Magda Olivero, Mary Garden, and Rosa Ponselle, to name a few. Mostly born in the late nineteenth century (Olivero was born in 1912), these women exist for most people only as scratchy voices on tinny old recordings. But in their day they were luminous women, renowned for their beauty, their voices, and their dramatic presence. More importantly, they were the stars that introduced the world to a great many new operas by Giacomo Puccini, Richard Strauss, and Erich Korngold; in other words,...
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