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00:00Let's talk about how you became a very famous soprano perhaps the most famous in the world. Just keep saying that. Thank you you are performing in Carousel which is not an opera. It's a Broadway play. I just thought wow it would be really exciting to do something new . Famous Soprano's or sometimes labelled as divas or prima donnas . I just couldn't do it. I've never been good at it . Just miss you you've done Broadway opera. Is there something you haven't done that you would like to do. I don't think I have a wish list . What I do have is an open mind and an A a belief in the future would you fix your time please. People wouldn't recognize me if my private switchboard just stay with us . All right . I don't consider myself a journalist and nobody else to consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though I have a day job running a private equity firm. How do you define leadership. What is it that makes somebody tick you are performing in Carousel which is not an opera. It's a Broadway play. Why are you doing that and not opera. I just thought wow it would be really exciting to do something new. I always love doing new things. It's just been an extraordinary experience. I'm the kind of person that if I were to say no for any number of reasons I would always wonder what if. And so rather than wondering I typically jump in though opera is usually two or three nights a week. Perhaps if you're doing a show and let's say the Metropolitan but you're now doing eight shows a week. Tell us you touched on the actual huge difference. Right. So you strain your voice doing eight shows a week. Is that hurt you if you're going to go to opera later. That wasn't that long ago really that people were on amplified on Broadway and they saying by and large closer to the way that I do because of the drama they absolutely put amplification into every theater now and that makes all the difference in the world. So on the opera stage our bodies are the amplifiers we have to create enough sound to be heard over an orchestra chorus and into the back of a large hall on Broadway. They're really that the mechanism of microphones and amplification and a really great sound designer . They do that work for us and we can kind of take it not take it easy persay but not use power. So explain for people may not be familiar with us in opera. There's no amplification allowed you can't use a microphone or anything like that. Why is that . You know it's it's the art form is old it's it's it's been that way always. And frankly I believe that the way we're trained enables us to be heard. And the the individual quality that we have is so powerful and beautiful actually because we all sound quite different when Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers wrote the play and the music for carousel. They knew at the time that some of the lyrics were complicated and that was a bit of spousal abuse. And you have concerns about that. I actually think you know in most of opera and most of history really Shakespeare also looked at so many of these things. I think it's worth portraying these aspects of the human condition of human experience so that we can talk about it so we can air it. It's important to give people a platform to say I had a bad experience no one who should ever come to an audience and feel taken unawares I think and be be hurt by something. But we should be affected by it. You sing one of the highlights of the show . It's the song at the end. What is that song that is so well known that you've sung before about I guess walking alone so you'll never walk alone. It's one of the great iconic songs. It's a universal statement about hope and about resilience. And in this piece it's my character Nettie sings it to Julie justice. Billie has died and is this very moving and context. And I've sung it a lot before I sang it for the 9/11 Memorial. A year after 9/11 in Washington and if sung at all through the years it's something that people absolutely love let's talk about how you became a very famous soprano perhaps the most famous in the world. You grew up in New York. I repeat that I love it. So I love that Dave ise. It's true . You just keep saying that. Thank you so we grew up in upstate New York. Is that right. Right. Rochester New York Chester . That's right. And your parents were music teachers. Yes. Yes . So did they always say to you you should grow up to be a great opera singer or they never bothered you. And now now they're shocked. They're they they were absolutely shocked. They said Get get get a teaching degree and you know you're not going to be EV forget about that. It's just too impossible. So you know you can imagine their surprise. My mother still teaching voice . She's not. She loves it she's very passionate about teaching . And I you know it's it's step by step it's it takes an incredible amount of drive I think and and resilience again because you know it's it's hugely competitive. Well when you were a little girl you were singing in many different plays I guess school plays and so forth. I did musicals I sang a lot of musicals and never sang a musical again until now. So when you find a college you wanted to go to a school that had very good music program and you applied to Oberlin and you got into Oberlin but your parents really couldn't afford for you to go there. I went to State University in Potts Ohio Sam. Yes. And it turned out that was a pretty good thing for you because they had a very good school of music is that right. And a great voice teacher. So that and that's really one of the key components for success is having someone who can help you develop your voice and it's not easy it's a very individual and you think about it every instrument is different. It's internal the voice and it requires for each bone structure and each kind of physical structure a different set of of of rules for technique. So when you went there you realized you were probably better than the average person and you began to sing a little bit professionally but you did some jazz singing as well you weren't asked Shery Ahn opera singer did you like jazz more than opera. I'm still a jazz fanatic. I listened to it a lot . You know I've been biking on the river and that's that's how I distress and I listen to a lot of my favorite performers. So yeah I still really love that. But I think classical For me it was a better fit for my temperament. I was shy I preferred to be in the practice room kind of unlocking and working on the process of learning how to sing I loved that as opposed to being an extrovert and a performer. I had to learn that. When did you realize that you actually were good enough to maybe be a professional singer. I just kept going along so it wasn't as if I made a decision. I think when I had the Fulbright scholarship that was a big turning point for me to be in Europe to be steeped in a foreign language and studying. I loved that you begin to prepare to maybe an opera career. How did you actually break through. You know you finally somebody has to take a chance. You know you have to have one person one impresario who says I don't care what other people think. I like the soprano and I'm going to give her a break. And your first break was in Houston. And how did that come about. Somebody called you and said somebody got sick and can you come and perform exactly. I had audition for the program for the studio the Young Artists Program. Two months later they called and said we had a cancellation singing opera you sing from the chest more and not from the throat. So we use an optimal breath expansion sort of intake and then support support is really a key thing that optimizes the amount of sound you can make without using pressure without actually tiring yourself. So somebody can go to a sports event and shout and they're hoarse the next day you hear or you say Where you at a rock concert read a sports event where were you . Were you out dancing you know that someone has heard their voice will sing for three hours just as extreme in terms of how we're using our voice. And the next day we can do it again when you're singing opera and you don't know the language is that very difficult. Well I sing in about eight eight nine languages you know if you include Lord Of The Rings and I only speak really three of them for if you include English so learning everything else whether Russian or Czech is by rote it's memorizing sounds you have to sound authentic and you also have to memorize what everyone else is saying. So it's just very tidy when you don't know the language you memorized by rote you actually know what the words say. Yeah you know what the sound. Yes you have to learn it off why is that. You think opera house declining attendance as does all classical music. Well I would have I would have tried to explain that but actually attendance is down in major sports arenas as well. I do think there is so much available to people for entertainment and a lot of it is digital and a lot of it is on television that people by and large I mean I see this with young people around me they just they don't want to spend the money. They don't go out. The other thing I want to say is when I off to New York there were only a few venues there were there were theaters on Broadway and there were a few classical music venues a couple of dance venues. That was it. Now there's a performing arts center on every other block so I'm opening the shed which is opening in a year from now with the New York tackler. It's extraordinary architecture an extraordinary opportunity to create only new work. And I'm thrilled to be participating in the first piece that they're going to present. So opera is something that you are going to continue doing. There was a story once in the New York Times that said you were going to finish your career at the MET AT A CERTAIN POINT 2017 but you're still doing opera is that right . Right. I mean that was you know that was really unfair. That was a headline. You know that was trying to draw attention so to when you do today you do opera you're doing other times of music. I mostly concerts ISE and that's what I've been doing for 15 years I'd say I spend 80 percent of my time on the concert stage which enables me to get around the world. I love creating the Renee Fleming show whatever it is I think the audience will enjoy the most a mixture usually of repertoire and I and I love meeting new audiences and having that one on one communication I'm working on a new piece for the Met actually that'll be it can't be announced yet but it's really exciting to contemplate so I'm going to go. I think back to the Met. And but but frankly you know and I have another major theatrical project after the shed so I didn't even know that I would be doing this much theater for you to sing the songs that won the Emmy award . Yes exactly. Well Alexander display won for the music in general but the shape of water of this beautiful song it was in the credits and halfway through the film as well you never to stem this I famous Soprano's are sometimes labeled as divas or prima donnas . Maria Callas being a good example of that but you don't have that reputation. So how did you avoid that reputation. Cos I you know I just wish I could have called you. I just wanted to to nurture that a little bit so I could be the subject of dinner conversations and I just couldn't do it I've never been good at it. But in other words the ego that's involved with being a great soprano obviously gets to a lot of people. I think it comes out of anxiety it comes from a state it's a certain kind of huge anxiety about performance pressure and let's not diminish what performance pressure means. It is really challenging. And some people you know if you make it to the top even staying at the top is terribly difficult. So I have internalized the pressure that I have felt over the years. And that's not really great either because it's not fun to feel like that but other people externalize it and they take it out on whoever is around them and somehow that's how that happens and then they go on stage in the great now because of the pressure of being an opera singer sometimes you need an outlet. And what did you do for an outlet. I am a culture fanatic. I am and I am also fascinated by. I want to learn. I'm a lifelong learner so I'm going to museums and theater I love absolutely love theater and I love video nature very much so I'm enjoying nurturing young talent. And I hope to continue doing that in a more meaningful way in the future . You're also working at NIH and Francis Collins the head of it to try to show that actually music can help people get healthier . Can you explain that. So I basically met Francis Collins is his director of the National Institutes of Health at a dinner party an amazing dinner party with Justices Scalia Ginsburg and Kennedy. And the key was we were we had a singalong when you were doing a singalong isn't everybody else intimidated. You're not exactly the average sing along. So we were kind of singing This Land Is Your Land. There were songs that everybody knew and they loved it. I said to Francis at some point that evening I said you know there's so much neuroscience about music. What would you think about collaborating with the Kennedy Center . And he said yes let's let's look into that. And it's turned into this really extraordinary project. It's about drawing attention to the power of music that the neuroscientists knew . It's relatively new and becoming more widely known. But how it helps a childhood in childhood development how it helps and with so many therapies for autism Alzheimer's Parkinson's for veterans I gave 14 presentations in the last six months around the country where I sing sharing. It's kind of the all of the knowledge that I'm gaining and then hopefully entertaining way . So when people come up to you young performers and say I want to be a famous opera singer What is the advice you give them. Well I really advice people first and foremost not to accept any limitations. Now you not only have to sing fabulously have a super technique and really be able to trust your voice. You have to look fabulous. Look like the character you're playing and act amazingly well. And a lot of this has developed since I started singing and I'm sure the demands will be even more in the future. So if I wanted to learn how to be an opera singer it's late I guess in life you have to learn early you can't start late in life right. Typically not really. And today when you go to master classes you teach people you ever see anybody you think this person really is talented are you. Oh yeah absolutely. I absolutely you know there are a lot of diamonds in the rough out there and we also say the greatest singers in the world probably don't even know they have a voice. Well OK so so David you know we could work on it a little bit and see just check out the town. I have. Every time I have ever song people say you are completely tone deaf. So I have this skill. So if you had to pay to watch Opera who would you want to pay to listen to. Who were the great opera male and female performers that you would have paid to hear. Oh gosh. I mean I would have loved to have heard Maria Callas because of her musicianship. I mean I still go to her records all the time . Victoria Police on her list. I don't think I ever heard her sing live. I'm a huge fan of her singing Schwarzkopf. I did a masterclass with her but I never heard her sing live. So there have been great historic. We belong to a tapestry that is really historic and I love that connection to what's come before . And I love celebrating that. And you know that's something we lose in our culture right now because of this connection to the two to social media and to the here and now and the momentary this idea that you become really wonderful at something that you learn about what people have done before you we are tell your friends at the Met about this . You have two daughters. They want to be singers. They're wonderful singers. They know too much. So they neither of them want to pursue singing. So think the lifestyle is challenging . So I am on the road literally every three days. I'm on a plane . Well when your daughters were younger you've written the fact that you would pack them up and take them on the road with you and get tutors or other than complicated Yeah but worth it. Totally worth it. I really believed that their home was with me that their home was with the people who love them and that's worked out well they've turned into fabulous young women. So if you had the chance to sing one opera only one more opera for the rest of your life what Hopper would you want to feel there's one reason Cavalier was absolutely my favorite . The most interesting woman the most complex in just such a three dimensional woman. Which you don't find very much if ME2 is an issue. Most of what we do and offer would not be performed because women are victimized right and left and often because it's just it's an historic art form. So that's why the marshal in who has power who has even though she says she's complex she is a much more interesting. You've done Broadway opera classical music. Is there something you haven't done that you would like to do. Gosh you know what David. It's already so much richer than I ever could have imagined if you told me that I would be in a musical on Broadway I would have said unlikely unlikely. So I don't think I have a wishlist. What I do have is an open mind and a belief in the future I absolutely believe that things come to us if we work hard and we're dedicated and we love what we're doing. You're passionate when you're an opera singer. You can't yell at anybody or yell anything because you could ruin your voice. You ever worry about that or you just don't worry about that. I made that mistake once. One of my daughters was upstairs and I share a moments. I shouted at her and I felt it. I went Oh I had to cancel three performances at the Met in a production that was that was built for me. So that was really unfortunate. So like in my case I'm not a good singer as I mentioned I have to completely tone deaf. But you know I could sing in the shower and nobody objects. So can an opera singer sing in the shower . That's not possible. Well it's great to sing in the shower . It's a good place to warm up. You have all that moisture. You know your. You might become a better singer by singing and I mean maybe that a practice that more exactly about that the thing that you're most proud of having achieved in your life other than let's say raising two very talented young women your daughters. What would you say you're your most achieve that's giving your most pride. Is it coming from very modest circumstances to becoming one of the most famous people in the world in the opera world. Yes. Or what would you say it is . Well I do share with you this extraordinary wonder at the the realm of possibilities that we have as Americans because some of my relatives were literally coal miners in Pennsylvania . And I have sat next to Prince Charles. And next to the King of Sweden at dinner parties and at various performances and I always stop and say Isn't this amazing. And literally in two generations that I have this this ability to travel the world and experience every place I go at the most extraordinary level . And the legacy that you would like people to think about you let's say 20 years from now when you people look back I think I really expanded the possibilities for the singers who came after me by singing in multiple genre by singing jazz by singing making a rock album. Now singing in music theater when I started people discouraged that very heavily. They said no you're going to ruin your legacy you will you will ruin the way in which you're viewed critically. You must not step out of the box in fact the more specialized you are the better. And I just thought I. I'm too curious I want to try new things. So I just ignored that advice. When you're an opera I mean you go out for a ballet can go on for 10 minutes 20 minutes how long do you go out before you realize it's finally time to leave the stage vowing an offer is an art form unto itself. It's another performance. And some people do it extremely well and the audience loves it. They'd love it. You know I had to sort of force. I had friends who would yell at me through my whole career stay onstage. The audience wants to show you their love their appreciation. So it didn't come super naturally to me . Well thank you very much for doing that. Thank you. So great to talk to you .

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The David Rubenstein Show: Renee Fleming

Renee Fleming is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, one of the most celebrated singers in the world, and a four-time Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee. She sits down with David Rubenstein in the latest episode of "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations," taped April 19. (Source: Bloomberg)

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