Broadway opera legend and four-time Grammy winner Renée Fleming will be on hand for an intimate dinner and conversation to benefit the French Cultural Center on Tuesday, March 12, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Somerset Club at 42 Beacon St.
Graced with a full lyric soprano voice, Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech and Russian, as well as in her native English. She was presented with the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama in 2013, performed at the Nobel Peace Prize and Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at London’s Buckingham Palace in 2012 and became the first classical artist ever to sing the “National Anthem” at the Super Bowl in 2014. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” and can be heard on the soundtracks for “The Shape of Water,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Bel Canto” and “The Lord of the Rings.” As an artistic advisor to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Fleming also spearheads a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health focused on music, health and neuroscience.
The benefit event is described as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” that will include a champagne reception, three-course meal and a discussion moderated by Mark Volpe,Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer, Boston Symphony Orchestraand a former classmate of Fleming’s from the Eastman School of Music of Rochester, N.Y.
“It will be an informal conversation between two old friends,” French Cultural Center Executive Director Barbara Bouquegneau said. “And of course, it’s Renée Fleming, with all her ties to France as she has performed there countless times over the years, so she was a perfect fit for our fundraiser.”
The evening’s proceeds will benefit the Center’s Mosaïque Cultural Fund, which promotes French culture via art exhibits, concerts, film screenings, author talks and children’s workshops, among other offerings.
“It’s unprecedented here in Boston to have an artist of such great global stature who has agreed to do this event… and donated her time and devotion to French culture and music on behalf of the French Cultural Center,” said Suki de Bragança, a longtime French Cultural Center trustee and founder of its Mosaïque Cultural Fund.
Meanwhile, the benefit event proceeds Fleming returns to Symphony Hall for three performances from March 14 to16 of an all-Strauss program, conducted by Andris Nelsons, that features her in the Final Scene from the composer’s last opera.
Tickets for the March 12 fundraiser are $1,000 each, and the dress is business attire, with jacket and tie required. Visit https://frenchculturalcenter.org/events/an-evening-with-renee-fleming/ to purchase tickets and for more information.