The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer by Renee Fleming
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Book Reviews of The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer
Book Review: EVERY SINGER MUST READ!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have aspirations to be a great singer, read this book! If you are a singer or conservatory student...read this book! It shows what it takes to become a truly great musician. The devotion and expertise of this artist will astound you. It honestly makes me feel like a bad singer, but gives me the inspiration to work harder and be devoted to my craft!Book Review: A Definite Must!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is not only a beautiful piece but a definite must for any one studying voice. Renee Flemming doesn't just take you on a autobiographical tour of her life but more so, an autobiographical tour of her voice. Her insight is priceless, and determination inspiring.Book Review: Fantastic Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Great book with so much inside info about making it in opera. She is a great role model.Book Review: a real account
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an easy read. I love that she is so down to earth, not trying to be an icon or legend.Book Review: Interesting. Very.
Summary: 3 Stars
I can't pretend to be unbiased; I attended Potsdam College and took courses at the Crane School of Music, where we all knew Renee Fleming was going to be a Star.
Either she revealed quite a bit more than she intended, or Renee Fleming was badly in need of a different editor, for I was surprised to find that this book makes her seem chilly and elitist. She writes without immediacy or passion except about music (or, to a lesser extent, her daughters). She says she "ended up" at Crane because she couldn't afford anything more prestigious. Oh, rats. Some of us enjoyed Crane; some of us didn't think we were slumming. (Hmmm, that could be why so few of us are Stars. Then again, not everyone at Juiliard becomes a star, either, as Fleming points out.)
Not one childhood playmate or High School friend is named, although she does tell us that she achieved the rank of Prom Queen. From her four years at Potsdam, again, no mere friend has a name (although the teachers and some fellow musicians do), and while she claims to be unambitious she calls her getting a solo in her first semester at Crane "a freshman upset." She tells about her decision to get pregnant way before we have any idea whether she has had a committed relationship, and writes about her husband "visiting" her and their daughters on her tours.
Some reviewers have called her book funny, but the only time I laughed out loud was when, describing her divorce, Fleming says she and her husband "had grown apart." When she made no case at all for her ability to grow together with anyone, "growing apart" is a ridiculous concept.
It's not that I need to know every detail of her personal life, but it is difficult to have compassion for this singer in her struggles with anxiety--to which she gives a great deal of space--when she seems to have little compassion for anyone else.
Even one of her music teachers, by Fleming's own admission, seemed to lose patience with her self-absorbedness. "Miss Fleming has come to visit me," this teacher remarks when she is dying and feels her student could give perhaps a little less time to the career.
This is no tell all; on the contrary, the head spins just trying to figure out the contradictions, for in trying to protect her own privacy, Fleming's writing becomes confusing. For example, she describes what seems to be a happy, hardworking childhood in a close family with music teacher parents. Then, without warning, she casually lets drop that her parents divorced in 1981 (it's way past 1981 in her narrative when she reveals that) and a little while later describes something that happens at her "parents'" house. Which parents?
Her passion for music is undeniable, and her ability to communicate vocal technique more than admirable. This is the strength of the book. Never before have I seen singing so beautifully and thoroughly explained, both as an art and as exercise. She describes the business part of music better than I've ever seen, and makes it clear that talent alone is useless without both drive and a lot of good fortune, but particularly drive. And Fleming avoids cattiness, and is happy to talk about the musicians who inspired her.
A good read for aspiring musicians or anyone who enjoys opera.
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