One of many remarkable things about this year's Super Bowl was the inclusion of a classically-trained American singer alongside some of the greatest pop singers of our time. No one from the opera world had ever been invited to be part of this iconic American event, and, in a week where some journalists were announcing the death of classical music in America, it turned out more people were going to hear it at one time than ever before in history. Before I write a little about Renée Fleming's performance, I want to take a detour into how a performance like this is prepared.
The unsung heroes of the classical world of singing are coaches.
These brilliant musicians, starting generally as pianists, learn everything about music, learn a myriad of languages, and understand the principles of diction for even more languages than any person could speak. They know the history of what the original composers wished for, what those composers got (instead of what they wished for), how those composers changed their expectations in the face of reality, and then they understand how changing times change what we might wish for.
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