The Beautiful Voice

I love telling the story of how I founded my Yahoo group, dedicated to opera diva, Renee Fleming... and what better time to tell it than on its 7th birthday?

In college, my roommate Cara and I had gotten into the tradition of seeing on opera to celebrate our birthdays (mine and her sister's on 11/24 and hers on 12/3). In 1999, we got nosebleed tickets to see Alcina at Lyric Opera of Chicago - on the 23rd, the day before my 21st birthday (since the opera was 4 hours long, it would actually BE my birthday by the time it was all over). We were excited to see Renee Fleming in person - we had watched her on the PBS broadcast of The Met's production of The Marriage of Figaro, and had worn out our collective tapes, watching her sing "Dov'e sono" over and over and over again.

Prior to the actual opera, we went to visit my friend Heidi at The University of Chicago, where she had discovered a lecture series, featuring the diva. She knew that I'd be interested in going, and she told me the where and the when. Cara and I, always happy to be free of our dorm room and the dining hall food, were on the next train to Hyde Park.

So, honestly, I don't remember a lot of what Renee actually talked about during this conversation. It was about gender roles in opera, specifically Alcina, and I remember she was very relaxed and composed, and was a very articulate speaker. Afterwards, we decided to hang around and see if we could try and meet her. The auditorium emptied, except for a few University notables hovering around by the stage. Nobody told us to leave, so we wandered down by the stage ourselves. Renee came back out, by herself, and stood on the stage. No one went up to her or tried to guide her anywhere else.... a few people started going up to her - just fans, not University types, so we went up on stage, too. She spent some time chatting with the others, then turned her attention to us. I don't remember who started the conversation, but it came up that we were seeing Alcina as our birthday treat, and Cara asked her if there was any part in the opera that was her favorite, or anything we should watch out for in particular and she said (direct and often quoted quote coming up) "Why don't you do me a favor and come backstage after you see it? We can talk about it."

Well, we were shocked and amazed and delighted. I had asked her to sign an Opera News ad featuring her latest cd release Strauss Heroines and she'd asked me in awed tones, "You read Opera News?" And I said yes. She asked us if we sang, and we said no, and she said, "So you just... like opera?" Yup. She took my name - heard the last name and said "Well, that explains it!" See, it's genetic. Good old "Uncle Enrico." We ate at the Medici that night and kept reliving the evening during the meal, especially the part where a famous opera singer asked us to do her a favor....

The 23 rolled around and it was business as usual - we went to class but I don't think it did us much good, we were too excited. We had class downtown at the Art Institute where we were joined by Cara's sister Susie. We ate and walked down to Lyric in the rain. Our seats were way up in the upper balcony - we could tell when Renee was on stage because of her bright red wig (and of course that gorgeous voice). It was my first Handel opera. I remember stark settings and beautiful beautiful baroque music much of which was along the "my life really stinks" vein - and I remember some of the other singers - Natalie Dessay and Jennifer Larmore in particular.

Then it was time to go backstage.... We'd never been back there before and had no idea what to do or say. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to get backstage at Lyric, so we found our way and then found ourselves waiting outside Renee's dressing room. I remember that there weren't many other people back there waiting for her. I'm not sure there were actually any other people waiting for her. We saw Jennifer Larmore go by and asked her to sign our programs, which she did, and she also graciously posed for a photo.

Renee opened the door to her room, looked at us and said "Happy birthday??" We were so surprised and amazed that she remembered this, after only having met us the once. We had brought her some small gifts (Godiva chocolates and something else... don't remember what) and she said 'I should be giving you presents since it's your birthday...' We talked about the opera "Did you have good seats?" Renee asked. We said no. "Did you have a pillow?" She asked next, since it was so long... We talked a little more about the opera, and she signed our programs (mine says 'happy birthday' on it.). She got one of the other singers (Kathleen Kuhlmann) to take a photo of all of us together, and asked us how we'd gotten there and if we'd be okay getting home. We said we would be okay, thanked her (profusely) and took our leave.

I think we were on Cloud 9 for the rest of the night - the rest of the week - and told everyone we knew (several times) about our encounter with this sweet, kind, down to earth diva. After a while, I ran out of people to tell. My friends are wonderful but aren't really into opera (although they listen patiently while I tell my stories, bless them). So I looked around online for an internet community about Renee. Surprisingly, there wasn't one, so I decided to start one.

It went from two members (me and Heidi, who I roped into joining so I wouldn't be lonely) and is now, 7 years later, close to 400 members. We have members all over the US and all over the world, and I have been lucky enough to meet many of them. Many I haven't met in person I have "met" online. I talk to some of these lovely people every day via email.

I have seen Renee many more times since that first encounter, and each time, she always surprises me by being so sweet, down to earth and wonderful, AND she's got a great memory for people, which I find just amazing, given the number of people she comes into contact with every day. So, thanks, Renee, for being the inspiration for this online community! My life has been so much richer because of you, and because of this group.

Happy 7th birthday to us!