dark hope...

So. This is the cover for Renée Fleming's new cd, Dark Hope, which I am personally very excited about. The music is all covers of some pretty unexpected groups:

1. Endlessly (Muse)
2. No One's Gonna Love You (Band of Horses)
3. Oxygen (Willy Mason)
4. Today (Jefferson Airplane)
5. Intervention (Arcade Fire)
6. With Twilight As My Guide (The Mars Volta)
7. Mad World (Tears for Fears)
8. In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)
9. Stepping Stone (Duffy)
10. Soul Meets Body (Death Cab For Cutie)
11. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

Cool, yes? I love when she sings jazz, and I love that she keeps pushing herself as an artist, and doing projects that she feels strongly connected to.

I am not particularly wild about this cover photo though, although I think I understand it, from a marketing perspective. It's fine. It's pretty, even, because Renée is absolutely stunning. But it's very different from her other cd covers (I mean, what's up w/the hair?? I'm sorry, I love you, Renée, but ????). But yeah, I think I get it. There are some opera fans (the purists/snobs/haters/whatever) who probably don't care for this kind of music, don't think she should be singing it and would not be likely to pick up the cd. The question then becomes who is the audience for this album? People like me, Renée's fans, who will listen to her sing the phone book, because we love her voice?

What about an adult contemporary crowd? A group that knows nothing about Renée's career as an opera singer, and would not, in fact, be caught dead going to see an opera? This cover is the farthest you can possibly get from an album of opera arias. For the uninitiated, opera is scary. There are certain perceptions out there - that it is long, it must be horribly, mind numbingly boring, and opera singers are those big ladies with horns and braids. I am not saying those are correct perceptions, mind you, but they exist. It costs too much, people are snobby, I won't know when to clap, I am intimidated are other things that keep your average joe audience member away from the opera house. And those aren't really true, either. Still. People are creatures of habit. They like what they know and the unknown is an awfully big jump. Especially opera. If my first had been, say, Frau ohne Schatten (or however the hell you spell it. I don't know and I don't care. It SUCKED.) - the only one I ever walked out of, by the way, I don't think I would ever have gone back.

But say that Joe or Joanne audience member is strolling his or her local Borders store (or somewhere that they still sell music). They see this cd, go, hey she's totally cute, and I like these songs, and voila! A new fan is born, one who might eventually pick up her other music and one who might end up in the opera house one day, or heck, even their local movie theater, to watch Renée on stage (an experience not to be missed!) and decide to try some others. It's like a lovely circle of life and death and dried fruit (I hope that line is still in the Addams Family musical!!) I love the way a singer can lead you on an unexpected journey, just by following him or her through her choice of repertoire. Renée has introduced me to lots of different styles and genres, just by my listening to a cd.

Anyway. It will be interesting to see the response to this album...