Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 8

“The bread-and-butter repertoire is mostly young women, and not necessarily the most interesting or strongest characters. Penelope is interesting.” “It was wonderful to see André and Tom Stoppard together. I had the privi- lege throughout this process of just joining them for meetings every once and a while. Just seeing the closeness that they had, their rapport. It was incredibly touching to see that. Stoppard is charming, so erudite and a great storyteller.” Penelope is the last in a string of fruitful collaborations Fleming has enjoyed with Previn. Her partnership with him has re- sulted in perhaps more world premieres than those with any other composer. “I think that is probably true,” she reflects, “I have done a lot of new music over the years, but I haven’t done so much repeat- ed work. Streetcar was our first. He wrote a beautiful concert work for me [ The Giraffes Go to Hamburg , based on texts from Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa ], he set three Em- ily Dickinson songs, he set some beautiful Yeats poems that I premiered last year in Carnegie Hall.” Fleming has particularly appreciated Previn’s ability to capture the natural flow of language in his vocal writing. “He writes beautifully for the voice, period. He has a lyrical sort of voice, compositionally. The prosody is wonderful; you can understand people. He is also willing to say ‘the orches- tra is too loud there, cut it’—I never saw anybody do that so easily, he has no prob- lem with that. I assume that’s from all his years of arranging, orchestrating, and ev- erything else he has done. He is just very experienced. Streetcar was, and is, one of the most successful contemporary operas. It is such a joy to perform. I absolutely love that part, as do many other sopranos. “The other thing is, he is so facile. I was gathering some ma- terial for Julie Harris, for this Emily Dickinson theatrical pro- duction I did a long time ago with Charles Nelson Reilly. I was reaching out to composers and asking, ‘Do you have any Emily Dickinson settings?’ because most people did. André said, ‘No, but I will tomorrow.’ ” Fleming chuckles at the memory. “That’s what he did; he was remarkable in that way.” As Previn and Fleming are both artists with a deep curiosity for exploring various musical genres (including a shared pas- sion for jazz), it stands to reason that their creative union would be a strong one. “I think that enabled a great understanding be- tween us. He was funny about Streetcar , too, because he said ‘there won’t be any jazz in it,’ and of course there was. The actual opening phrase of the piece! I loved collaborating with him. It was simply a joy. If I needed something, he immediately under- stood. He was very open-minded. And I really liked his musical language.” It is poignant to note that Fleming intermittently still speaks of Previn in the present tense. Her remembrances suggest that in losing her frequent colleague and collaborator, she also lost a beloved friend. “Absolutely. He was just a wonderful person, so lovely to spend time with. Unfortunately, we have a lifestyle that doesn’t allow us to see each other often. But when I did see him, it was a very warm, friendly greeting. It was just a pleasure. “You know, even in this last year he was calling me and say- ing, ‘Let’s do a jazz album!’ He could do anything.” A Previn/ Fleming jazz album is something a lot of people would have wanted to hear, I muse. “Yeah,” Fleming agrees, with a hint of wistfulness in her tone, “Oh, yeah. Me too.” Mark Thomas Ketterson is the Chicago correspondent for Opera News . He has also written for the Chicago Tribune , Playbill , Chicago magazine, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. ANDREW ECCLES RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 15 – JULY 28, 2019 18