Although the ticket prices for what the PSO is calling "An Evening with Renée Fleming" will certainly put you out (they start at $65), the opportunity to hear such talent in a small hall like the Merrill Auditorium is a treat not likely to be repeated any time soon. The performance is an endowment benefit concert, the first of its kind for a symphony desperately trying to make ends meet.
"This is a hallmark event," says Moody. "This is an orchestra that plays at a level befitting of an artist like Fleming."
Emily Parkhurst can be reached at emily.parkhurst@yahoo.com.
AN EVENING WITH RENÉE FLEMING | with the Portland Symphony Orchestra | February 17 at 7:30 pm | at Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St, Portland | $65-140 | 207.842.0800 | www.porttix.com
Related:
Puccini goes punk, Mad love, Slideshow: BLO's Rusalka, More 
- Puccini goes punk
Perched on the lid of a lace-draped baby grand, a bobblehead quivers along with Christine Teeters's vibrato as she powers through a Tuesday-night voice lesson in the Steinway Piano Building on Boylston Street.
- Mad love
The destructive power of jealousy makes a good subject for opera.
- Slideshow: BLO's Rusalka
Photos of the Boston Lyric Opera's Rusalka at the Shubert Theatre
- German birthday cake
Tuesday's gift from Portland's Choral Art Society to German composer Felix Mendelssohn, on the occasion of what would be his 200th birthday, will be one of his greatest works (Elijah), and one of their biggest undertakings.
- Diva-gations
Last week's Boston Symphony concert was a snaggle of contradictions. British guest conductor Mark Wigglesworth was substituting for the exciting but erratic Russian maestro Yuri Termirkanov, who'd cancelled all his American appearances.
- Slideshow: Don Giovanni at Boston Lyric Opera
Boston Lyric Opera presents Don Giovanni
- Can classical be underground?
At least one of the reasons many of us contemporary-music fans don't get into classical music is because it seems like no one wants us to listen to it.
- Lift every voice!
Opera is the big word for 2009.
- French kiss
Productions I attended at the Opéra and Opéra Comique would be rare in New York, let alone Boston — though some of the performers would be familiar.
- Almost
The Boston Lyric Opera comes maddeningly close to having a good Carmen . (The production continues at the Shubert Theatre through November 17.) Keith Lockhart leads a superb orchestra and chorus and a cast of plausible singers/actors in a compelling if not spine-tingling performance.
- Interview: Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs
"Opera fans have often puzzled over the fact that Poppea does not appear to have a character the audience wants to root for, since everyone has seriously objectionable traits."
- Less
Topics:
Classical
, Celebrity News, Entertainment, Music, More
, Celebrity News, Entertainment, Music, Classical Music, Classical Music, Opera, Orchestral Music, Giuseppe Verdi, The Metropolitan Opera, Renee Fleming, Less
