Master Class

I had another of those rare Rochester opportunities recently – to attend a vocal Master Class at the Eastman School of Music. In this case, the master was none other than the famous and popular Renée Fleming (the “people’s diva, as she was introduced by Dean Rossi), who grew up here in Rochester and studied at Eastman. I took my friend (and Concentus conductor) Gwen, and we joined a full house in Kilbourn Hall Monday afternoon. What a treat!

There were four students who came on stage one by one, and Fleming took her time with each of them, gently making corrections and suggestions, and always being extremely encouraging. This was nothing like Terence McNally’s play of the same title, in which Maria Callas treats the students as “victims.” To the contrary, Fleming did everything she could to help the students relax – shaking their shoulders, making them laugh, helping them breathe.

The first soprano, visibly nervous but with a gorgeous voice, performed a recitative and aria from Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, and Fleming coached her not just vocally but gave her tips for dramatic interpretation, including how to address the inner monologue and the pauses in the music. At one point, Fleming told the student she was “so brave” and instructed her (and the audience as well) to “bend over, take a deep breath.” She explained that a master class is scary, performing and being judged, and that it’s one step away from an audition. To take a bit of “edge” out of the student’s voice, Fleming gave her a straw and had her sing through it; she told us this is how she warms up in taxis and hotels!

The second student, a baritone, sang what I thought was a rather boring Brahms song, and Fleming agreed – he was singing everything the same. She loved his “distinctive sound and vibrato,” but actually asked him to back off on the vibrato a bit. Interestingly, she also gave some interpretive instruction to the pianist, whose playing was also a bit boring.

Arielle on the right, after the class

The third student, another soprano, was my favorite, not just for her operatic name (Arielle Nachtigal), but for her vocal sound and expressiveness. Fleming also appreciated the performance as she nodded and smiled throughout, and then commented that the aria, from Le nozze di Figaro, was perfect for her. Arielle was also nervous, of course, and Fleming periodically shook her shoulders to get her to relax. She had Arielle do the plank against the wall (instead of on the floor, since she was dressed too nicely for that) to get her to expand her ribcage and maintain the fullness, and all I could think was I hope Gwen doesn’t make the Concentus singers do this to warm up!

According to Fleming, the final student, a tenor, sang every note of an Italian-language sonnet by Britten too evenly – the syllables were all correct but there were no accents. She asked him to “sing it like you like the language,” to understand where each phrase was going, and to save the biggest space for the high note in the phrase, to allow it to bloom. As she shook the student’s and pianist’s hands at the end, I could see her compliment the expressive pianist, Wei-Wei Hsu: “beautiful playing.”

Renee Fleming after the class, with Dean Jamal Rossi
and  U of R's President Seligman

Fleming was funny and down to earth, but she also took her role very seriously in giving constructive feedback to these students, all of whom dream of careers on the stage. They were a bit too nervous, or too young, to incorporate all of Fleming’s suggestions in the allotted half hour, but they all did improve their performances visibly and audibly, and all earned a gracious “much better” from Fleming. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ariella’s name again, in particular, sometime in the future.