In the competitive opera scene, American soprano Renee Fleming commands center stage. The daughter of two music teachers from upstate New York, Fleming was not born a diva, but a pliant, fledgling songbird eager to learn. In 1991, she made a triumphant debut at the Metropolitan Opera. Now Fleming, author of The Inner Voice, lives in New York City with her two daughters. Her CD of handpicked arias, Homage, was released in the fall of 2006.
In graduate school, you realized your passivity was holding you back. How did you change?
When I was in my twenties, I likened myself to a chameleon. I was literally changing on a daily basis, minute by minute, depending on whom I was with. I'd be what I thought that person would most want.
At that time, people weren't as tuned into the self. I had to discover my own strategy for reinventing myself. I simply emulated friends of mine who seemed to be much more free of this need to please.
You described studying with your mentor Beverley Johnson as hearing the locks on a safe all tumble in sequence.
