| Plot Summary of The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer |
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""The Inner Voice" is a brief autobiography of a loving, unaffected, decent middle-class girl from upstate New York who grew up to be a single mom with two young daughters, a couple of assistants, a publicist, a manager, couturiers donating ball gowns, a hair stylist on staff, a home in Connecticut and a second home in Paris, and a year-round performance schedule.
Renee Fleming describes her formal education, the paths to breaking into a singing career, and how to go about learning on the job; pays homage to her mentors; reflects on master classes, the selection of repertoire, diet and "singing in the zone," and the business (and future) of classical music (she sometimes feels, she says, like Renee Fleming, Inc., building her brand through carefully timed publicity, product endorsements, recordings, and -- one might add -- book contracts); and gives the reader a day in the life of a really nice singer performing as Violetta at the Met.
The book is short on opera anecdotes even as it is generous with praise and brief character studies of classical music figures (Georg Solti, Leontyne Price, Joe Volpe) every opera fan will know. Similarly, while Ms. Fleming is unusually candid in describing the uncertainties that have occasionally affected her (stage fright verging on panic attacks, self-worth issues, growing apart from and then divorcing her actor-husband), some readers -- warming to her kindness and openness -- may wonder whatever happened to her divorced parents, whether the girls now have horses of their own, and whom, if anyone, Ms. Fleming now chooses to date. These, it appears, are facts for a future memoir.
"
Robert E. Olsen, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
job/profession:
- artist
Job/profession/poverty story
Yes
Story of entertainer?
- Singer/Dancer
Period of greatest activity?
- 1950+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- artist
Age:
- 40's-50's
Biography of famous person?
Yes
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other people
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 8 ()
United States
Yes
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Germany
Century:
- 1980's-Present
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Book makes you feel?
- encouraged
Is book humorous?
Yes
If humorous, kind of humor
- gentle
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- capitalism
Writer's slant towards subject:
- neutral
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of nearly entire life
Autobiography?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- None
How much dialogue in bio?
- little dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 26-50% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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