Renée Fleming on being a musical 'olympian'

7 November 2013, 12:29 | Updated: 22 August 2017, 12:51

The opera superstar shares her thoughts on vocal technique, musical stamina and cross-genre collaborations with Classic FM's Jamie Crick.

When it comes to today's opera stars, they don't come much more exciting than Grammy Award-winning soprano Renée Fleming. It's perhaps no surprise she's hosting the American Voices festival exploring singing of all genres - with performances and talks from singers at the top of their field including Josh Groban, Ben Folds, and Alison Krauss.

It might be a celebration of all things vocal, but, as Renée explained to Jamie Crick, there's something special about opera: "Our tradition, we're unamplified, which is something I always love to point out because people don't think about it. That's huge! It's also based on hundreds of years of technical advances in how to sing - we're sort of the olympians, I would say!"

"It's the most athletic. I've seen some rock concerts, that's athletic too, in a slightly different way because the amplification helps, but the length and the stamina required are similar to opera."

Renée also shared the inspiration behind her latest album, Guilty Pleasures - and even revealed a few guilty pleasures of her own...

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