Renée Fleming "Je suis seule... Dis-moi que je suis belle" Thais LIVE (2004) Massenet

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Madrid 2004
Thais' most demanding aria delivered by Fleming in her prime. This is the best live performance I can find of hers in this famous aria - her range is fully supported and resonant from low D4 to the high D6, all sustained with an effortless legato and lovely shifts in vocal colour, and the aria's constant alternations from dramatic to lyrical singing are expertly handled. As always her attention to the text is impeccable. She does interesting things here that she doesn't do in the studio recording like the aggressive chest voice around 1:28 - very effective - apt for the text and revealing of Thais's state of mind.
This recording has been uploaded to youtube before but in terrible sound, so I have chosen to upload this much better source.
Ah! je suis seule,
seule enfin! Tous ces
hommes ne sont
qu'indifference et que
brutalite. Les femmes sont
mechantes et les heures
pesantes... J'ai l'ame vide...
Où trouver le repos?
Et comment fixer le
bonheur? O mon miroir
fidèle, rassure-moi!
Dis-moi que je suis belle,
et que je serai belle
èternellement!
èternellement!
Que rien ne flètrira les roses
de mes lèvres, que rien ne
ternira l'or pur de mes
cheveux! Dis-le-moi!
Dis-le-moi! Dis-moi que
je suis belle, et que je
serai belle èternellement!
èternellement! Ah! je
serai belle èternellement!
Ah! Tais-toi, voix impitoyable,
voix qui me dis :
"Thaïs, tu vieilliras..
Thaïs, tu vieilliras...
Un jour, ainsi, Thaïs ne serait
plus Thaïs..."
Non! Non! Je n'y puis croire.
Toi, Vènus, rèponds-moi
de ma beautè! Vènus,
rèponds-moi de son
èternitè! Vènus, invisible
et presente! Vènus,
enchantement de l'ombre!
Vènus! Rèponds-moi!
Rèponds-moi! Dis-moi
que je suis belle, et que
je serai belle èternellement!
èternellement! Que rien
ne flètrira les roses de
mes lèvres, que rien ne
ternira l' or pur de mes
cheveux! Dis-le-moi!
Dis-le-moi! Dis-moi que
je suis belle, et que je
serai belle èternellement!
èternellement! Ah! je
serai belle èternellement!

[@classique11]

Sputenda!!!!! Quanto adoro questa DIVA René Fleming!!! ❤

[@eberlinpascal2837]

Le contre ré final incroyable ❤❤❤

[@marquesjerrellruff3438]

Thank you for taking the time to post these videos. I watch/listen to these like an athlete watching tapes of games, dissecting every second and translating it to my own technique and artistry. Not to mention I am IN LOVE with Renée - I’ve met her four times, and each time was like the first.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Thanks very much. I take a lot of care to chose only the best live recordings, comparing several versions. Renée is one of the great artists of our age and we are incredibly lucky to have the studio and live recorded legacy that we do (while of course wishing that we had more! If she had been born 20 years earlier, we would have her complete repertoire in studio recordings with great conductors!) I listen to her voice every day. I met her too once, after her Ariadnes, and just looking into that famous face, I realised in a single second that she had to maintain a public persona to protect her normal life from all these people (including me) for whom her art means so very much, and who can't help but project onto her and transfer that feeling of divine beauty onto her personally and on to her life. She is very obviously wise enough to realise that she herself is not the archetype though. As Jung said (which I read much later), you should never get confused that you yourself are the archetype that is working through you at some moment - to do so leads to inflation, which we do see in a lot of divas, and it can wreck their private and public lives. Anyway, it was weird and a bittersweet moment to realise this just by looking into a face, and I simply couldn't say the things I wanted to say about how much her artistry had meant to me. I also realised how much I was projecting by how much nervous energy I had inside me (this is me talking, having read up about such things) - I was meeting the archetype, not the person. She was chatty, polite, and conversational, but quickly had to move on to the next person to sign their CD. I also realised that she spends about an hour after EVERY show just signing CDs and meeting fans.

[@FranciscoFerrerGaliana1930]

Eres muy bella Renée fleming, y tú voz es excelsa como los Ángeles..¡¡¡¡

[@BritinIsrael]

Beautiful voice control and excellent diction. Fleming is superb in this role. From what year is this recording?

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Glad you enjoyed it. Agreed on the level of textual acuity and vocal control. Says date in the title of the video!

[@LohengrinO]

I would very much like to ask ... (forget his name) why Thais is not included in the second Assoluta list... it demands huge range of voice

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Lohengrin O no coloratura I think is maybe why. I agree though it is ultra demanding.

[@lukasmiller486]

Who were the Athanael and Nicias for this performance?

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

It was a concert.