Renée Fleming to Release 'Greatest Moments at the Met' Album

Decca Classics is proud to announce Renée Fleming - Greatest Moments at the Met. The release showcases her stellar career at the Metropolitan Opera House to date, making some of the great soprano's most iconic performances at The Met available on CD and digital audio for the first time ever.

Hearing these live performances captures the excitement felt in the house as they were happening in real time, making an indispensable addition to her many studio recordings.

This announcement follows news of Fleming's nomination last week for a 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, for her previous Decca release Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene, and it comes as Fleming takes the stage at the Met again tonight (November 22) in the star-studded world premiere production of Kevin Puts's opera The Hours.

Fleming describes The Met as, "my musical home, the theater where I feel welcome amongst friends - backstage, onstage, and in the audience." The beginning of Fleming's Met career is famous: in 1991 she stepped in at the last minute as the Countess in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, her surprise debut receiving instant acclaim. It launched a remarkable artistic relationship, with Fleming singing beloved operas from the standard repertoire, as well as championing operas never before heard at the house. She has sung more than 250 performances there, more than at any other opera house in the world, and the tally continues to grow.

Fleming regards singing the Met as the peak of operatic performance, saying, "The Met is vast, but when you're singing there, and there's absolute silence, and you're in a flow state, it is one of the most magical experiences you can have as a performer. It's the pinnacle, just the pinnacle of all opera houses."

Produced by GRAMMY-winning producer David Frost, the double CD set begins, of course, with Figaro (from an early 1991 recording). The tracklist continues in chronological order of her roles at the house, allowing listeners to experience the development of Fleming as an artist over three decades, featuring music from 19 productions and gala concerts, and featuring duets with the likes of Cecilia Bartoli, Susan Graham, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Samuel Ramey, and Bryn Terfel.

Tonight, Renée Fleming makes her highly anticipated return to the Met in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts's The Hours, adapted from Michael Cunningham's acclaimed novel. The premiere radiates with star power with Kelli O'Hara and Joyce DiDonato joining Fleming as the opera's trio of heroines. Phelim McDermott directs this compelling drama, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct Puts's poignant and powerful score.

Renée Fleming - Greatest Moments at the Met comes with liner notes featuring Fleming in conversation with Mary Jo Heath, Radio Host at the Met for fifteen seasons, telling the behind-the-scenes stories of these famous performances.

Renée Fleming - Greatest Moments at the Met is out on Decca Classics on January 13, 2023.

Renée Fleming - Greatest Moments at the Met Tracklist

CD 1

Mozart: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO K.492
1. Act III: "E Susanna non vien ...
2. Act III: ... Dove sono i bei momenti"
3. Act III: "Cosa mi narri!"
4. Act III: "Sull'aria... Che soave zeffiretto"
RENÉE FLEMING, Countess Almaviva · Cecilia Bartoli (3-4), Susanna

Verdi: OTELLO
5. Act IV: "Era più calmo?"
6. Act IV: "Piangea cantando" (Willow Song)
7. Act IV: "Ave Maria, piena di grazia"
RENÉE FLEMING, Desdemona · WENDY WHITE (5), Emilia

Strauss: ARABELLA Op.79
8. Act III: "Das war sehr gut, Mandryka"
RENÉE FLEMING, Arabella

Britten: PETER GRIMES Op.33
9. Act III: "Embroidery in childhood was a luxury of idleness"
RENÉE FLEMING, Ellen Orford · Alan Opie, Captain Balstrode

Charpentier: LOUISE
10. Act III: "Depuis le jour"
RENÉE FLEMING, Louise

Gounod: FAUST
11. Act IV: "Alerte! Alerte! ou vous êtes perdus!"
RENÉE FLEMING, Marguerite · Samuel Ramey, Méphistophélès · Richard Leech, Faust

Dvořák: RUSALKA Op.114
12. Act I: "Mĕsíčku na nebi hlubokém" (Song to the Moon
RENÉE FLEMING, Rusalka

Massenet: MANON
13. Act III: "Obéissons quand leur voix appelle"
14. Act III: "Toi! Vous!"
15. Act III: "N'est-ce plus ma main que cette main presse"
RENÉE FLEMING, Manon · MASSIMO GIORDANO (14-15), Des Grieux

CD 2

Floyd: SUSANNAH
1. Act I: "Ain't it a pretty night!"
2. Act II: "That's mighty pretty singin', Susannah"
RENÉE FLEMING, Susannah · Samuel Ramey (2), Rev. Olin Blitch

Strauss: DER ROSENKAVALIER Op.59
3. Act III: "Marie Theres'!" 5.33
RENÉE FLEMING, The Marschallin · Susan Graham, Octavian · Heidi Grant Murphy, Sophie

Mozart: DON GIOVANNI K.527
4. Act II: "Crudele? Ah no, mio bene! ...
5. Act II: ... Non mi dir, bell'idol mio"
RENÉE FLEMING, Donna Anna

Bellini: IL PIRATA
6. Act II: "Col sorriso d'innocenza"
RENÉE FLEMING, Imogene

Verdi: LA TRAVIATA
7. Act II: "Ah! Dite alla giovine"
8. Act II: "Imponete - Non amarlo ditegli"
RENÉE FLEMING, Violetta · DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY, Germont

Handel: RODELINDA HWV 19
9. Act III: "Mio caro bene"
RENÉE FLEMING, Rodelinda

Tchaikovsky: EUGENE ONEGIN
10. Act III: "O! Kak mnye tyazhelo!"
11. Act III: "Onegin! Ya togda molozhe"
RENÉE FLEMING, Tatiana · DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY, Onegin

Massenet: THAÏS
12. Act II: "Ah je suis seule ...
13. Act II: ... Dis-moi que je suis belle"
RENÉE FLEMING, Thaïs

Rossini: ARMIDA
14. Act III: "Dove son io? ... Fuggi!"
15. Act III: "È ver... gode quest'anima"
RENÉE FLEMING, Armida

Lehár: THE MERRY WIDOW
16. Act II: "Hello, here's a soldier bold"
RENÉE FLEMING, Hanna Glawari · Nathan Gunn, Count Danilovitch

Korngold: DIE TOTE STADT
17. Act I: "Glück, das mir verblieb" (Marietta's Lied)
RENÉE FLEMING, Marietta