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This week Alec talks with opera singer Ren\\xe9e Fleming, whose singing voice has been described as "double cream." Fleming remembers her professional debut -- \\u201cI was just jelly at the end of the first rehearsal\\u201d -- and celebrates her long association with The Metropolitan Opera. Fleming talks about performing and the challenges of being heard, without amplification, over an orchestra, but also about the pleasure of being in the audience \\u201cwhere I have literally been sobbing at the end\\u201d of an opera.

Music excerpts included in\\xa0Here\\u2019s the Thing\\u2019s\\xa0conversation with Ren\\xe9e Fleming (in order of appearance):

\\u201cGl\\xfcck, das mir verblieb (Marietta\\u2019s Lied)\\u201d\\xa0from Korngold\\u2019s\\xa0Die Tote Stadt

(Live performance from the Met\\u2019s 125th Anniversary Gala, March 15, 2009; Conductor: James Levine)

\\u201cI\\u2019ll Be Seeing You\\u201d (Ren\\xe9e Fleming with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble/\\u201dArranger\\u2019s Holiday\\u201d recorded Fall 1981 (archive tape courtesy Ren\\xe9e Fleming; special thanks to Ed Fleming)

"Contessa, perdono!" from Mozart\\u2019s\\xa0Le Nozze di Figaro, Houston Grand Opera.\\xa0Conductor; Christoph Eschenbach. 1991

\\u201cGl\\xfcck, das mir verblieb (Marietta\\u2019s Lied)\\u201d\\xa0from Korngold\\u2019s\\xa0Die Tote Stadt

\\xa0(Live performance from the Met\\u2019s 125th Anniversary Gala, March 15, 2009; Conductor: James Levine)

\\u201cDis-moi que je suis belle\\u201d\\xa0from Massenet\\u2019s\\xa0Tha\\xefs

(Live Met performance, December 20th, 2008; Conductor: Jes\\xfas L\\xf3pez-Cobos)

\\u201cHab\\u2019 mir\\u2019s gelobt\\u201d\\xa0from Richard Strauss\\u2019s\\xa0Der Rosenkavalier

(Live Met performance, January 9, 2010, with Susan Graham as Octavian and Christine Sch\\xe4fer as Sophie; Conductor: Edo de Waart)

\\u201cMio caro bene\\u201d\\xa0from Handel\\u2019s\\xa0Rodelinda

(Live Met performance, January 1, 2005; Conductor: Harry Bicket)

Finale\\xa0from Tchaikovsky\\u2019s\\xa0The Queen of Spades

(Live Met performance, March 26, 2011; Conductor: Andris Nelsons)

Finale\\xa0from Mozart\\u2019s\\xa0Le Nozze di Figaro

(Live Met performance, February 12, 1994, with Dwayne Croft (Count Almaviva), Marie McLaughlin (Susanna), James Morris (Figaro), Jane Bunnell (Cherubino), Fran\\xe7ois Loup (Dr. Bartolo), Judith Christin (Marcellina), Michel S\\xe9n\\xe9chal (Don Basilio), James Courtney (Antonio), and Korliss Uecker (Barbarina); Conductor: Julius Rudel)

Special thanks this week to The Metropolitan Opera and the Houston Grand Opera for providing archival musical excerpts.\\xa0In particular, thanks to Peter Clark, Mary Jo Heath, Brent Ness, Sam Neuman, Elena Park, and Claire Vince.\\xa0And thanks to Paul Batsel at the Office of Ren\\xe9e Fleming.

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