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At 55, Fleming can see about three more years down the road
singing the roles in Strauss and Mozart operas, or as the water
nymph Rusalka in Dvorak's opera of the same name, that made her
famous, and then?
Well, as she put it in a recent phone interview to launch her
album "Christmas in New York", where she sings along with the
likes of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and pop crooner Rufus
Wainwright, she can continue her work as a creative consultant
for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and sing recitals.
But in opera? "If I were a mezzo or I were a dramatic soprano
then there are those parts, those character parts, but for the
soprano voice there's almost nothing" after a certain age,
Fleming said.
"I'm really happy with my opera life - 54 roles was a lot to
learn and perform and so I think I may leave well enough alone.
I have another three years of various new productions and so I'm
not stopping yet - let's not put the cart before the horse, but
I'm thinking down the road."
She's also in a happy spot with her career that is taking off in
new and sometimes surprising ways, including appearing as the
first opera singer to sing the national anthem before 80,000
fans for the Super Bowl - and some 170 million watching on TV.
"The Super Bowl effect sort of changed my life a little bit this
year, because of just the size of the audience," said Fleming,
who already has one of the best known faces in the opera world
from hosting the Met Live broadcasts seen globally.
"I mean, the Smithsonian museum has taken the gown - I mean it's
incredible," she said, referring to the Vera Wang black silk
gown she's donated to the Smithsonian Institution.
"The audience is incomprehensible, even the stadium audience of
80,000 is a little bit terrifying because there's so much sound,
the delay, the Black Hawk helicopters, the roar of the crowd
which comes at unexpected times. So it took a lot of mental
preparation for me to go in there and focus."
But was there ever a second when Fleming thought she might not
hit that "high A" (the second A above middle C on a piano)?
"No, no, that's what we do. If you want a high note, get an
opera singer, a tenor or a soprano. That's what we do."
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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