For those not in the classical know, Renée Fleming is an American opera singer and soprano and has a full lyric soprano voice.

She has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English.

She has also sung chansons, jazz and indie rock. She speaks fluent German and French, along with limited Italian.

However, her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, the title role in Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, the title role in Richard Strauss's Arabella, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and the Countess in Capriccio.

A National Medal of Arts and Richard Tucker Award winner, she regularly performs in opera houses and concert halls worldwide. In 2008, she was awarded the Swedish Polar Music Prize for her services in music. In 2010, she took the title of 'Creative Consultant' to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first person to hold such a title with the company.

Conductor Sir Georg Solti said of Fleming, "In my long life, I have met maybe two sopranos with this quality of singing; the other was Renata Tebaldi".

Grammy-winning soprano Renée Fleming has just released her brand new album via Decca Classics, entitled Broadway.

1. Rodgers: The Sound of Music - From The Sound of Music
2. Guettel: Medley: Wedding / Fable - From The Light in the Piazza
3. So Big/So Small - From Dear Evan Hansen
4. Rodgers: Medley: Children will Listen / You've Got to be Carefully Taught - From Into the Woods & South Pacific
5. Lay Down Your Head - From Violet
6. Porter: Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor - From Red, Hot and Blue
7. Kander: Medley: Winter / Love and Love Alone - From The Visit
8. Bock: Dear Friend - From She Loves Me
9. Rodgers: A Wonderful Guy - From South Pacific
10. Rodgers: Loneliness of Evening - From South Pacific
11. Unusual Way - From Nine
12. Till There Was You - From The Music Man
13. Sondheim: The Glamorous Life - From A Little Night Music
14. Rodgers: Something Wonderful - From The King and I
15. Lloyd Webber: Tell Me on a Sunday - From Song and Dance
16. Weill: September Song - From Knickerbocker Holiday
17. Kern: All the Things You Are - From Very Warm for May
18. Sumner: August Winds - From The Last Ship

Celebrating all that she finds wonderful about musical theatre it also features a diverse array of great songs for the stage. Inclusive are works by composers including: Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Pasek & Paul, and Rogers & Hammerstein, as well as a special guest duet with the Hamilton, television and film star, Leslie Odom, Jr.

Fleming made her Broadway musical debut as Nettie Fowler in the hit new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's beloved Carousel, and she received glowing reviews and a Tony nomination.

Renee Fleming says: "The great, classic Broadway musicals were central to my childhood. I sang Eliza Doolittle twice before I was even out of high school. This repertoire is so rich, and the sheer quality of the music is so high, that its been a joy to record these songs."

"And along with the growth of popular music, the sound of musical theater has evolved over time. Composers like Jeanine Tesori, and Pasek & Paul, and even popular music icons like Sting, have enriched the genre."

"It's a living art form, enjoying a real boom right now, and it was a thrill for me to be able to include phenomenal songs that are absolutely current."

As you might be already able to tell from the sumptuous track listing above, this delightful new recording features a wide range of Broadway hits from the 1920s to the present.

All enraptured within supple orchestrations (many commissioned specially for this album, among the songs are The Sound of Music, The Glamorous Life from A Little Night Music, Tell Me on A Sunday from Song and Dance, Wonderful Guy from South Pacific, Fable from The Light in the Piazza, and So Big So Small from Dear Evan Hansen.

Indeed, it should also be noted that Fleming's collaborators include Broadway legend Rob Fisher as music supervisor and conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, as well as the incomparable bassist and jazz great Christian McBride.

Rising star pianist Dan Tepfer, and Grammy-winning producer David Frost are also on board, making Broadway one of the most well thought out, well conceived, and well orchestrated works of musical art that I've had the pleasure to listen to for many a year.

CD Purchase Link

www.ReneeFleming.com

www.facebook.com/ReneeFlemingMusic

www.DeccaClassics.com