Renee Fleming: The New York Times misleads people

Renee Fleming: The New York Times misleads people

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norman lebrecht

April 08, 2017

The diva gets on the phone to NPR:

‘I never said that I was stepping away from the opera stage for good. Never, never, never did I say that to anybody,’ Fleming insisted in a phone conversation from her home in New York City earlier today.

‘I think it misleads people,’ she added. ‘They sort of imagine that I’m an opera singer and I’m now retiring. So I just want to make sure that gets cleared up.’ Fleming said she told the newspaper she was interested in pursuing new operas and had received proposals from composers.

And the Times failed to report it.

Full interview here.

Comments

  • Steve P says:

    Gee, New York Times spreading false news? This is certainly newsworthy…(snore)

    Glad Renee is going to keep singing. She is definitely an all-time great (one of my musician friends insist she is THE greatest).

    • Holly Golightly says:

      “Fake news” is what it’s called.

    • Respect says:

      You two fools realize it’s assumed you are paid pro Putin trolls?

      I read the iMessage article, carefully, only drew from it the inference that it was her retirement from the Met, an event of great significance in her career. Although I’m not a fan of the arts coverage, the Times is a great paper, a bastion of sanity in a world where the two trolls have to make their sad voices heard.

      • Steve P says:

        Bastion of sanity? Hyperbole much, respect? Anyway, coming from you I appreciate the fool and troll labels – let’s me know you are keeping up with the winning team (albeit still from your safe space). Not the world you might like, but it is the world you’ve got for at least four years

        • Holly Golightly says:

          Or the world you would force on everybody else through authoritarian repression. Ssshhh; can’t say that; can’t think that; can’t do that. On and on it goes…

    • NYMike says:

      Considering your “alt-right” bias, one has to wonder if you really have any musician friends. BTW, what if anything do you have to do with music other than sniping from the right-wing sidelines??

  • Ungeheuer says:

    Oh no, not RF again. Please stop giving her and her publicists what they want. Attention attention attention.

  • Alexander says:

    Renée, come to us for our summer festival in August and sing us Haendel then 🙂

  • James says:

    She didn’t say the New York Times misleads people. She said the article did. There’s quite a big difference. With real journalism under attack from people like the President of the United States, please don’t contribute to his tirade against the press.

    • Mike Schachter says:

      I see , so the NYT is not responsible for the articles it publishes. How very convenient. Usually the problem with the NYT is not what it publishes but what it suppresses.

  • C.E. says:

    Come on, this is all just about publicity for Fleming. What a bunch of fools crying “fake news”. Before the interviews for the article took place Fleming’s publicity people hinted to Times that there was big story because she was retiring from something (the Met, a certain type of role, whatever). Fleming is just responding because the way the came out her retirement sounded more complete or serious than she meant it to. And for her to say they got it wrong just generates more publicity.

    Anyone who reads (or maybe let’s say is capable of reading with comprehension) knows that through the Times is not flawless it is scrupulous about it’s reporting. At times the claims sources make turn out to be incorrect (like with Judith Miller who believed the Bush administration claims about weapons of mass destruction), but almost never in 150 has anything “fake” been published.

  • Larry Harfmann says:

    So happy to hear it is ‘false news’! I have always wanted to hear her but cannot afford the ticket. Now that she is staying I can start saving!!!

  • King Lear says:

    The article said that she was taking a cue from her mentor, Leontyne Price, and leaving the opera stage while she was on top of her game. It has been talked about for the last year. Maybe she’s getting some offers that weren’t there before and we all know $ talks.

  • Kerrin Meis says:

    Good grief! Much Ado about absolutely nothing. Ithought the bit about Fleming’s role as the Marchallin and this moment in her career was sensitively written Perhaps fire the person who wrote the headline.

  • AMetFan says:

    All you suckers (on both sides) play right into what Ms. Fleming and her publicists intended. Much ado (about nothing). Ms. Fleming’s mama didn’t raise no fool.

  • Dave R. says:

    Sounds to me like the article was right and the headline was wrong, or at least it overreached. Besides, if she’s going to stop singing the roles she’s famous for, it’s about as good as retirement as far as the opera world is concerned. If someone said, “She’s not going to sing any more of her best roles, but she is going to sing concerts and maybe she’ll come back in a new work,” wouldn’t you be right to consider one era over and another lesser era beginning? Isn’t this what opera singers on the downsides of their careers do?

    Another thing: Her 2017-18 schedule seems to have no mainstage opera, at least as far as I can tell from her website and Operabase. Does anyone know otherwise?

  • John says:

    The original article was very clear. Could be some bloggers didn’t read carefully enough and spread a false message.

  • Stephen says:

    Pity my post about “Doing a Melba” was deleted as if it was a filthy innuendo. Dirt is in the mind of the beholder!

  • Stephen says:

    For the uninitiated: “do a Melba” slang Australian: to make repeated farewell appearances.

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