Saturday, Feb. 23, 8 pm, Sandler Center
The Sandler Center Foundation and the Virginia Arts Festival will present former Virginia Opera star and world-renowned soprano, Renée Fleming, in a performance at the Sandler Center.
Fleming’s set will include renditions of notable compositions from Johannes Brahms, Giacomo Puccini, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Francesco Paolo Tosti, and Heitor Villa-Lobos, as well as numbers from musicals such as The Music Man and A Little Night Music.
Russell Allen, president and chief executive officer of the Virginia Opera, says the acclaimed soprano made her U.S. operatic debut in 1986 at the Virginia Opera performing the role of Frasquita, in George Bizet’s Carmen.
After conquering the opera stage with her lush vocal range, Fleming transitioned into other artistic venues such as Broadway and film, a rarity within the profession.
In 2018, Fleming sang You’ll Never Know in Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water and Last Rose of Summer in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. She will sing both songs at the concert.
Fleming’s 2018 Broadway debut as Nettie Fowler in the revival of Richard Rodgers’ and Oscar Hammerstein’s Carousel was critically lauded, described by the Hollywood Reporter as, “the essence of warmth, good humor, and grounded serenity.”
A four-time Grammy winner, Fleming has also achieved fame off the stage. In 2013 she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama, America’s highest honor for an individual artist. Fleming also performed at the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
When Fleming isn’t on the stage or in the studio, she acts as the artistic advisor for the Polyphony Foundation, which seeks to bridge divisions and promote civility by bringing together Jewish and Arab children through the study and performance of classical music.
By Thomas Carberry
Tickets and additional information on the event are available at vafest.org.