Fat Lady Sings for Fleming
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NEW YORK (AP) – Soprano Renee Fleming will be replaced by bass Rene Pape in a performance with the New York Philharmonic and Symphonica Toscanini that pays tribute to the late Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini.
Fleming, a two-time Grammy Award winner, canceled her performance in “A Tribute to Toscanini” because of illness, the Philharmonic announced Saturday.
The 2-hour performance is scheduled for Avery Fisher Hall on Tuesday, the 50th anniversary of Toscanini’s death at age 89.
Pape will sing arias by Verdi and Mozart, and the orchestras will perform together and separately. Lorin Maazel will conduct.
Fleming, 53, is considered one of the world’s leading lyric sopranos. She made her debuts with the New York City Opera and London’s Covent Garden in 1989. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1991.
A publicist for her didn’t immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Sunday.
Pape made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1997. He last appeared with the orchestra in 2002.
The Dresden, Germany, native also has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera every season since his 1995 debut. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Berlin Staatsoper.
During the tribute, a clip of Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, which was telecast on Dec. 29, 1951, from Carnegie Hall, will be shown.
During his career, Toscanini also conducted at the Philharmonic and the Met.
Proceeds from the tribute performance will benefit the Arturo Toscanini Associate Conductor’s Chair at the Philharmonic.
