Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@mayfestivalcincy concluded its 2025 season with one of the most unique concert experiences I have encountered in recent years, coupled with an appearance by one of the most renowned sopranos of our time, Renée Fleming. Under the direction of guest conductor Robert Moody, music director of the Memphis Symphony, the concert featured music built around Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, a Grammy-recording Fleming made in 2023 paired with a moving film from National Geographic exploring the beauty of our world and how we as a society should care for it.
Highlights included evocative new solo songs by American composers Nico Muhly, Maria Schneider and Kevin Puts, a track which Fleming contributed to Howard Shore’s score to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of the charming Chants d’auvergne of Joseph Canteloube and the concluding epilogue from Floresta do Amazonas, a rarely-heard oratorio by Heitor Villa-Lobos.
All of these pieces demonstrated that Flrming is still in great form as an artist, having performed with most of the world’s major opera houses for the better part of 20 years. Yet, surprisingly, her voice has become more mellow over the last few years, which may explain why her highest registers may have been thinner in tone or otherwise lacking in weight or power.
The May Festival Chorus, prepared by chorus director Matthew Swanson, joined in the second half for a set of choral and solo works long considered among the most popular in the repertoire and a unique surprise. This came in the Brindisi from Verdi’s La Traviata. Lacking a solo tenor guest artist for the extensive solo lines, the entire tenor section of the chorus proved more than up to the task, which made it work surprisingly well. Perhaps the most interesting work was Hubert Parry’s anthem Blest Pair of Sirens, setting words by John Milton, given a wonderfully insightful reading. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel served as an inspirational closer.
While it was wonderful to see Renée Fleming take the reins as festival director this year, I am eagerly anticipating what is to come from next year’s festival director, American soprano Julia Bullock.