Renée Fleming and the New Jersey Symphony put ‘sentiment over sentimentality’ in season-opening performance
The New Jersey Symphony started the 2024–25 season on Sunday, October 6 at NJPAC with celebrated soprano Renée Fleming in a performance that featured various images from the National Geographic Society exploring the environment and its impact on humanity. Courtney Smith of NJArts.net was there to review the opening performance.
... Fleming has mastered a stylish blend of tender sentiment and extrovertive high spirits. She was polished and poised, displaying no shortage of star wattage with her trademark velvety voice, easy charm, humorous rapport — and, of course, her off-the-shoulder gowns and “Renée” coiffure ... Zhang was a stylish and flowing accompanist throughout, and a sensitive interpreter of the program’s delicate themes, leading the orchestra with markings that were more cantabile than vivace to bring out the songs’ sweetness. In an ethereal, lyrical “Pretty Bird” by Hazel Dickens (arr. Jeremy Kittel), she sustained a barely-there veil of pianissimo below Fleming’s soulful vocals.
Courtney Smith of NJArts.net
» Read the full review from NJArts.net
James C. Taylor of NJ Advance Media also reviewed the performance.
The program was titled “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene.” National Geographic, which made the video, describes “the Anthropocene” as “an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.” The mix of beautiful melodies set against images of majestic waterfalls and frightening forest fires was well-intentioned and made its point: Earth is special, let’s try not to ruin it.
James C. Taylor of NJ Advance Media