Best 63 quotes of Renee Fleming on MyQuotes

A lot of bad behavior in singers is caused by nerves.

A lot of performers don't want to leave the circuit, the European opera house circuit, partly because most singers don't sing many concerts, or at least not while they are in their prime.

Among the important realizations I had in my own days in the practice room was that if any one route to any one phrase didn't work after days of trying, then the exact opposite route should at least be explored, as well as every alternative in between, as counterintuitive as that often seemed.

An interpretation exists because of what we find between the notes.

At this stage in my career, I don't have to take any big risks. You want to take a calculated risk, not one that leads to people saying 'yes, but there was that one time when she made that big mistake.' It's always a shame when that happens, especially if you've gotten by for decades without anything hugely tragic.

Because everything about the voice interests me, I felt it would be fascinating to learn a completely different style of singing.

Being steeped in the process of learning and exploring keeps me from becoming too nervous. Partly it's about not getting bored.

Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.

Contrary to the norm, as my technique improved my voice became higher.

Everybody's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress. I mean, I've never arrived. I'm still learning all the time.

Every singer eventually gets around to a Christmas disc.

For my own singing, I used to be attracted by the baroque, the flashier the better, but now I prefer a simpler, purer style.

Fostering creativity in children is as important as any other part of the school curriculum because it feeds the soul. A daily dose of creativity helps children imagine a better world and then create it.

Having to travel so much plays havoc with your personal life.

I am so envious of my colleagues from 100 years ago who only sang new works, they hardly ever sang revivals.

I cannot imagine a more satisfying calling than my own: beauty, humanity, and history every day, combined with the cathartic joy of singing.

I enjoy the more floaty, exposed, elegant singing.

If I have to hold a note for a long time, I imagine it as moving and spinning, for the note has to have life. In a way, a singer actually refreshes a note with every beat that it's held.

I have a noble history of being rejected by a lot of places, only to discover that the one that finally lets me in is in fact the perfect fit.

I have had a very difficult time with stage fright; it undermines your well-being and peace of mind, and it can also threaten your livelihood.

I have not changed with the accomplishments. I've remained the same. If I had changed, great. You know, but I haven't.

I haven't really been able to transfer into that extraordinarily other worldly creature, other than I hope on stage.

I learned so many roles so quickly as a young singer, I thought it was time to come back to them and make them better - deeper, more nuanced.

I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos.

I'm American. I'm eclectic. I'm going to follow my musical passions. And if people don't like it, and it hurts my legacy, I'm not going to worry about that.

I'm lucky - I can do two things at once.

I'm reserved, so I've always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that.

In a sense, it's less about seeing how high up I can vault than about seeing how deeply I can explore my potential...Ambition for me is about the willingness to work, the ability to mine my own soul fearlessly.

In a way, being an opera singer is like being a very romantic sixteen-year-old who falls in love with great passion and conviction every month.

I think opera has gained a kind of glamorous appeal. It's a live performance that aligns all of the arts, and when it is represented in the media, in film in particular, it is presented as something that is really a special event, whether it's a great date or something that's just hugely romantic.

I think singing is one of the most natural things that human beings do, but it's difficult.

I think singing it when its done well is extremely natural. It feels great.

I've always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.

I've lived in New York all my life, and we went to the Mormon Pageant each year in upstate New York. It still is a wonderful production. I remember going and seeing the performance and listening to the music. My father had Mormon Tabernacle Choir music, and we would listen to it and sing with it.

I've spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate, very simple and emotional, about that music.

I want to get out of the major opera houses.

I want to keep my voice young, with nothing heavy.

I was always a very good student.

I was constantly being pushed toward a European ideal of what it means to be a classical or opera singer, let's say in the Renata Tebaldi mode. I reject that.

Music enabled me as a fragile young person to give voice to emotions I could barely name, and how it enables me to give my voice the unique and mysterious power to speak to others.

My mother was the worst kind of stage mother. She would make me and my younger sister and brother little duckling costumes and put us in kiddie shows.

My parents discussed singing every night over the dinner table; I had a tremendous music education.

My philosophy is that the people around us are there doing as much work if not more work behind the scenes and they're the last people you would ever be unkind to, so I hope I'm not a diva off stage.

My worry is that opera will become an historic art form as opposed to a living, breathing thing.

No voice teacher can be all things to all people. You have to gain information from whatever sources you can. You have to listen.

One of my timesaving habits is to save all of my magazines and junk mail for airplane trips. I walk on the plane with a very heavy bundle, but by the time the trip is over, it can all be thrown away.

Perfection often creates such a flawless surface that there's no place for the audience to enter into a piece, while the idiosyncrasies of individual style are like windows into the singer's heart.

Someone once said that there are probably seven naturally good singing days in a year-and those are days you won't be booked. What we must learn is how to sing through all the other days.

So much can be gained from watching other singers, seeing what they do and what they don't do, seeing how they look when they breathe, how wide they open their mouths for a high note.

The first thing I did when I made a little bit of money as a singer was to buy myself an amber necklace. This is often the way we put together our lives, adding the striking qualities of others into our own character.