Latest news with #Fleming
Hamilton Spectator
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Renée Fleming makes directing debut with wrestling-themed ‘Così fan tutte' at Aspen Music Festival
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Renée Fleming's 'Così fan tutte' was ready to rumble. Long a star soprano, Fleming made her directing debut Monday night at the Aspen Music Festival and School by transporting Mozart's masterpiece from 18th century Naples, Italy, to a gym in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, amid professional wrestling's rise in 1980. Posters on stage display Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, wrestler Randy Savage and Jane Fonda hawking her workout video. In Fleming's concept, Fiordiligi and Dorabella are workout-obsessed high school sisters. 'It's a coming of age for the protagonists and a loss of innocence,' Fleming said. An outstanding student cast ages 25-32 mostly making role debuts, was accompanied by conductor Patrick Summers leading a 45-piece orchestra at the 375-capacity Wheeler Opera House, opened in 1889 during the Colorado Silver Boom. There are two additional performances through Saturday at a festival that includes about 200 public events from July 2 to Aug. 24. Lauren Carroll, the 26-year-old soprano who sings Fiordiligi, did a split. Dorabella, 27-year-old mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Brown, struggled to lift a heavy barbell. Michelle Harvey's scenic design in the tight space of a 25-foot-wide proscenium included punching bags, bo staffs and ThighMasters. Fleming sang her first Countess in Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro' as an Aspen student in 1984. Now 66, she has, since 2017 , limited her singing to concerts, a few contemporary operas and Broadway. Staging spark was at a hockey game Fleming had a circuitous route to her concept. 'I can't do the opera relating to hockey, but I did think of another sport that reminds me so much of opera and that's professional wrestling. There's a suspension of disbelief that is huge,' she said. 'Fans believe these characters are real and that the moves are real, and of course it's all completely choreographed.' Fleming at first spoke with Francesca Zambello, the Washington National Opera's artistic director. 'I said, `Convince me, sell me, tell me,'' Zambello related, '`you really have to work it through from the overture to the final curtain.' WNO's 'Così' in 2021 was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, Fleming and Summers launched Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS, with 15 singers annually attending an eight-week program that covers their $12,325 tuition, room and board plus pays a $1,500 stipend. Wrestling family history Ashlyn Brown, the 27-year-old mezzo-soprano who performs Dorabella, is a granddaughter of Don Stansauk, the wrestler known as Hard Boiled Haggerty. 'I grew up with wrestling culture,' she said. 'I used to go to the Cauliflower Alley Club meetings when I was a kid. He brought all of his buddies, like Andre the Giant.' Carroll was a cheerleader and her mother is an aerobics instructor. 'She really invests in young artists and it's authentic,' she said of Fleming. 'She really means it and backs it up with action.' In creating the look, Fleming thought back to her time at Churchville-Chili Senior High School in New York. 'I have photographs of me with a really bad mullet and overalls,' she said. Just before intermission ended, a Fonda dress-alike led the audience in calisthenics. Despina (soprano Laura Miah), a gym manager here instead of a maid, uses a blender to make protein shakes and heads stretching exercises. 'Renée of course demanded a lot of herself as a singer in that way and that's extended itself to her demands on them in this,' Summers said. Mozart's opera has the two boyfriends adopt hidden identities and romance each other's girlfriend to test their virtue. Both women fall for the other's boyfriend, and while the two couples get back together in the original, Fleming has both relationships come apart. Fiordiligi ends up wearing an 'ERA YES' shirt. Don Alfonso is a gym owner. Guglielmo and Ferrando, the boyfriends (baritone Finn Sagal and tenor Jonghyun Park), wear Amanda Seymour's colorful clothes, including powder blue and light gray tuxedos with ruffled shirts. Peter Barber, a 31-year-old bass-baritone who sings Don Alfonso, boxes to keep in shape. 'When I was I think 8 or 9 years old after watching `Rocky,' I had a custom boxing robe made for me,' he said. Role a part of Fleming's life for more than 30 years Fleming sang Fiordiligi for the first time at Geneva in March 1992. She greeted the cast at the first rehearsal on June 30 by telling them: 'Toi toi toi. Let's have some fun,' using a performers' expression for good luck. 'I'm astonished that someone who is such an extraordinary singer and performer, they are also an extraordinary stage director,' choreographer Sara Erde said. 'She knows every note of the music, every word of the text.' Fleming learned that unlike with singing, directing requires 'million decisions that have to be made day to day.' At WNO, Fleming had envisioned a set with a stadium-sized video screen. She hopes the staging has an extended life. 'If anybody wanted to do it, it would be really fun in a bigger theater with a budget,' she said. 'Especially the time we're in, it's not a bad time to bring pro wrestling into opera because of the similarities, for the sheer novelty of it.'
Hindustan Times
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Renée Fleming makes directing debut with wrestling-themed 'Così fan tutte' at Aspen Music Festival
ASPEN, Colo. — Renée Fleming's 'Così fan tutte' was ready to rumble. Renée Fleming makes directing debut with wrestling-themed 'Così fan tutte' at Aspen Music Festival Long a star soprano, Fleming made her directing debut Monday night at the Aspen Music Festival and School by transporting Mozart's masterpiece from 18th century Naples, Italy, to a gym in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, amid professional wrestling's rise in 1980. Posters on stage display Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, wrestler Randy Savage and Jane Fonda hawking her workout video. In Fleming's concept, Fiordiligi and Dorabella are workout-obsessed high school sisters. 'It's a coming of age for the protagonists and a loss of innocence,' Fleming said. An outstanding student cast ages 25-32 mostly making role debuts, was accompanied by conductor Patrick Summers leading a 45-piece orchestra at the 375-capacity Wheeler Opera House, opened in 1889 during the Colorado Silver Boom. There are two additional performances through Saturday at a festival that includes about 200 public events from July 2 to Aug. 24. Lauren Carroll, the 26-year-old soprano who sings Fiordiligi, did a split. Dorabella, 27-year-old mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Brown, struggled to lift a heavy barbell. Michelle Harvey's scenic design in the tight space of a 25-foot-wide proscenium included punching bags, bo staffs and ThighMasters. Fleming sang her first Countess in Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro' as an Aspen student in 1984. Now 66, she has, since 2017, limited her singing to concerts, a few contemporary operas and Broadway. Fleming had a circuitous route to her concept. 'I can't do the opera relating to hockey, but I did think of another sport that reminds me so much of opera and that's professional wrestling. There's a suspension of disbelief that is huge,' she said. 'Fans believe these characters are real and that the moves are real, and of course it's all completely choreographed.' Fleming at first spoke with Francesca Zambello, the Washington National Opera's artistic director. 'I said, `Convince me, sell me, tell me,'' Zambello related, "`you really have to work it through from the overture to the final curtain.' WNO's 'Così' in 2021 was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, Fleming and Summers launched Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS, with 15 singers annually attending an eight-week program that covers their $12,325 tuition, room and board plus pays a $1,500 stipend. Ashlyn Brown, the 27-year-old mezzo-soprano who performs Dorabella, is a granddaughter of Don Stansauk, the wrestler known as Hard Boiled Haggerty. 'I grew up with wrestling culture,' she said. 'I used to go to the Cauliflower Alley Club meetings when I was a kid. He brought all of his buddies, like Andre the Giant.' Carroll was a cheerleader and her mother is an aerobics instructor. 'She really invests in young artists and it's authentic,' she said of Fleming. 'She really means it and backs it up with action.' In creating the look, Fleming thought back to her time at Churchville-Chili Senior High School in New York. 'I have photographs of me with a really bad mullet and overalls,' she said. Just before intermission ended, a Fonda dress-alike led the audience in calisthenics. Despina , a gym manager here instead of a maid, uses a blender to make protein shakes and heads stretching exercises. 'Renée of course demanded a lot of herself as a singer in that way and that's extended itself to her demands on them in this,' Summers said. Mozart's opera has the two boyfriends adopt hidden identities and romance each other's girlfriend to test their virtue. Both women fall for the other's boyfriend, and while the two couples get back together in the original, Fleming has both relationships come apart. Fiordiligi ends up wearing an 'ERA YES' shirt. Don Alfonso is a gym owner. Guglielmo and Ferrando, the boyfriends , wear Amanda Seymour's colorful clothes, including powder blue and light gray tuxedos with ruffled shirts. Peter Barber, a 31-year-old bass-baritone who sings Don Alfonso, boxes to keep in shape. 'When I was I think 8 or 9 years old after watching `Rocky,' I had a custom boxing robe made for me,' he said. Fleming sang Fiordiligi for the first time at Geneva in March 1992. She greeted the cast at the first rehearsal on June 30 by telling them: 'Toi toi toi. Let's have some fun,' using a performers' expression for good luck. 'I'm astonished that someone who is such an extraordinary singer and performer, they are also an extraordinary stage director,' choreographer Sara Erde said. 'She knows every note of the music, every word of the text.' Fleming learned that unlike with singing, directing requires 'million decisions that have to be made day to day.' At WNO, Fleming had envisioned a set with a stadium-sized video screen. She hopes the staging has an extended life. 'If anybody wanted to do it, it would be really fun in a bigger theater with a budget,' she said. 'Especially the time we're in, it's not a bad time to bring pro wrestling into opera because of the similarities, for the sheer novelty of it.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Winnipeg Free Press
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Renée Fleming makes directing debut with wrestling-themed 'Così fan tutte' at Aspen Music Festival
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Renée Fleming's 'Così fan tutte' was ready to rumble. Long a star soprano, Fleming made her directing debut Monday night at the Aspen Music Festival and School by transporting Mozart's masterpiece from 18th century Naples, Italy, to a gym in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, amid professional wrestling's rise in 1980. Posters on stage display Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, wrestler Randy Savage and Jane Fonda hawking her workout video. In Fleming's concept, Fiordiligi and Dorabella are workout-obsessed high school sisters. This image released by Aspen Opera Theater shows co-director Renée Fleming during a rehearsal with the cast of Mozart's Così fan tutte at the historic Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colo. (Diego Redel/Aspen Opera Theater via AP) 'It's a coming of age for the protagonists and a loss of innocence,' Fleming said. An outstanding student cast ages 25-32 mostly making role debuts, was accompanied by conductor Patrick Summers leading a 45-piece orchestra at the 375-capacity Wheeler Opera House, opened in 1889 during the Colorado Silver Boom. There are two additional performances through Saturday at a festival that includes about 200 public events from July 2 to Aug. 24. Lauren Carroll, the 26-year-old soprano who sings Fiordiligi, did a split. Dorabella, 27-year-old mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Brown, struggled to lift a heavy barbell. Michelle Harvey's scenic design in the tight space of a 25-foot-wide proscenium included punching bags, bo staffs and ThighMasters. Fleming sang her first Countess in Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro' as an Aspen student in 1984. Now 66, she has, since 2017, limited her singing to concerts, a few contemporary operas and Broadway. Staging spark was at a hockey game Fleming had a circuitous route to her concept. 'I can't do the opera relating to hockey, but I did think of another sport that reminds me so much of opera and that's professional wrestling. There's a suspension of disbelief that is huge,' she said. 'Fans believe these characters are real and that the moves are real, and of course it's all completely choreographed.' Fleming at first spoke with Francesca Zambello, the Washington National Opera's artistic director. 'I said, `Convince me, sell me, tell me,'' Zambello related, '`you really have to work it through from the overture to the final curtain.' WNO's 'Così' in 2021 was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, Fleming and Summers launched Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS, with 15 singers annually attending an eight-week program that covers their $12,325 tuition, room and board plus pays a $1,500 stipend. Wrestling family history Ashlyn Brown, the 27-year-old mezzo-soprano who performs Dorabella, is a granddaughter of Don Stansauk, the wrestler known as Hard Boiled Haggerty. 'I grew up with wrestling culture,' she said. 'I used to go to the Cauliflower Alley Club meetings when I was a kid. He brought all of his buddies, like Andre the Giant.' Carroll was a cheerleader and her mother is an aerobics instructor. 'She really invests in young artists and it's authentic,' she said of Fleming. 'She really means it and backs it up with action.' In creating the look, Fleming thought back to her time at Churchville-Chili Senior High School in New York. 'I have photographs of me with a really bad mullet and overalls,' she said. Just before intermission ended, a Fonda dress-alike led the audience in calisthenics. Despina (soprano Laura Miah), a gym manager here instead of a maid, uses a blender to make protein shakes and heads stretching exercises. 'Renée of course demanded a lot of herself as a singer in that way and that's extended itself to her demands on them in this,' Summers said. Mozart's opera has the two boyfriends adopt hidden identities and romance each other's girlfriend to test their virtue. Both women fall for the other's boyfriend, and while the two couples get back together in the original, Fleming has both relationships come apart. Fiordiligi ends up wearing an 'ERA YES' shirt. Don Alfonso is a gym owner. Guglielmo and Ferrando, the boyfriends (baritone Finn Sagal and tenor Jonghyun Park), wear Amanda Seymour's colorful clothes, including powder blue and light gray tuxedos with ruffled shirts. Peter Barber, a 31-year-old bass-baritone who sings Don Alfonso, boxes to keep in shape. 'When I was I think 8 or 9 years old after watching `Rocky,' I had a custom boxing robe made for me,' he said. Role a part of Fleming's life for more than 30 years Fleming sang Fiordiligi for the first time at Geneva in March 1992. She greeted the cast at the first rehearsal on June 30 by telling them: 'Toi toi toi. Let's have some fun,' using a performers' expression for good luck. 'I'm astonished that someone who is such an extraordinary singer and performer, they are also an extraordinary stage director,' choreographer Sara Erde said. 'She knows every note of the music, every word of the text.' Fleming learned that unlike with singing, directing requires 'million decisions that have to be made day to day.' At WNO, Fleming had envisioned a set with a stadium-sized video screen. She hopes the staging has an extended life. 'If anybody wanted to do it, it would be really fun in a bigger theater with a budget,' she said. 'Especially the time we're in, it's not a bad time to bring pro wrestling into opera because of the similarities, for the sheer novelty of it.'
Otago Daily Times
18 hours ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Doc alarmed by discovery of dead stoat on Stewart Island/Rakiura
A dead stoat found in the middle of a Stewart Island/Rakiura track is concerning, Department of Conservation southern South Island director of operations Aaron Fleming says. A member of the public walking on the Rakiura Great Walk Track on July 12 reported the dead stoat to Doc, who retrieved it the next day. The stoat's skull was crushed, indicating it had died instantaneously from either a trap or similar blunt force prior to being found on the track. "Rakiura is known to be stoat free," Mr Fleming said. "The nearest stoat population is 30km across the Foveaux Strait. Their swimming range is 2km and they are not known to stow away on vessels. This stoat has died from a head injury then mysteriously turned up on a busy walking track." "We need to know if we are dealing with a new significant threat to Rakiura's native species, or if this stoat has been transported from elsewhere and planted deliberately. Both scenarios are disturbing. We are taking this seriously." The dead stoat has been sent to an expert to see what further information can be obtained. Samples are being sent for genetic testing to try to determine where it has come from. Doc is appealing to the public to come forward if they have any information about the dead stoat's origins. "It would have devastating implications for native wildlife if stoats were to take hold on Rakiura," Mr Fleming said. "In other places in New Zealand where there are stoats, kiwi chick survival can be as low as zero without sustained pest control. Imagine the damage stoats could do on Rakiura, which is known for its tokoeka or southern brown kiwi population." "If stoats were to establish on Rakiura they would threaten efforts to create a predator-free space for kākāpō to be returned, and they would quickly decimate other native species on the island." The Predator Free Rakiura project is working on the removal of Rakiura's existing pest species — rats, possums, feral cats and hedgehogs — in one of the largest and most complex predator eradication projects ever attempted on an inhabited island. Introducing pests such as stoats constitutes an offence in New Zealand, with serious consequences and penalties including imprisonment of up to five years and significant fines. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468). — APL
USA Today
a day ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Popular analytics guru projects Michigan State football win total for 2025 season
One of the most knowledgeable college football analytics guys on social media has released his preseason win total projections, and it's right about on par with many others for the Spartans. Parker Fleming -- better known by the handle of @statsowar on social media platform X -- published his preseason average wins total for the upcoming season on Monday. And for Michigan State, the number is right above the betting win total found at most sportsbooks. Fleming ran his simulation model 10,000 times and it produced an average win total for the Spartans of 5.7 -- which is essentially right on the cut line to reach bowl eligibility. This should come as no surprise, as Michigan State's win total over/under betting line is 5.5 -- so essentially the same number as Fleming's output. Among Big Ten teams, the Spartans came in at No. 13 in highest average number of wins in Fleming's model. That is also right on par with where the Big Ten media picked the Spartans to finish in the annual preseason poll released by on Monday. Check out Fleming's complete average win total projections in the graphic below: Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.
