Review: RENÉE FLEMING VOICE OF NATURE: THE ANTHROPOCENE at Ordway Concert Hall

Renée Fleming’s return to the Twin Cities was met with eager anticipation—and she did not disappoint. Performing to a sold-out house at the Ordway as part of the Schubert Club’s International Artist Series, Fleming, joined by pianist Inon Barnatan, delivered an evening that was as stirring as it was beautifully conceived. The program, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, drew from her Grammy-winning album of the same name and unfolded as a meditation on humanity’s relationship with the natural world, blending classical, contemporary, and popular repertoire in a way that felt both seamless and deeply intentional.

The concert opened with Hazel Dickens’ plaintive “Pretty Bird,” Fleming’s voice intimate and crystalline, immediately drawing the listener in. From there, the program moved through centuries and genres—Handel’s serene “Care Selve,” the expansive, searching lines of Nico Muhly’s “Endless Space,” and the rustic lyricism of Canteloube’s “Bailero,” all delivered with Fleming’s signature warmth and command. Maria Schneider’s “Our Finch Feeder” and Björk’s “All is Full of Love” added surprising and poignant textures, each song resonating with the environmental themes that anchored the evening.

Throughout the first half, the audience was asked to withhold applause until the end of the accompanying film—imagery from the National Geographic Society that played behind the performers like a silent, ever-present character in the story. The visuals weren’t mere decoration; they created a larger emotional and ecological context that allowed each piece to land with more weight, more urgency. It was art used not just for beauty, but for purpose.

Inon Barnatan’s solo performance of Rachmaninoff’s Moments Musicaux No. 4 added a reflective interlude—his playing was expressive without becoming overwrought, a masterclass in subtlety. The first half closed with a gentle reminder of the stakes: Howard Shore’s “Twilight and Shadow” and Kevin Puts’ “Evening” lingered with an air of quiet reckoning.

After intermission, the audience returned to a recorded performance of Jackson Browne’s “Before the Deluge,” arranged by Caroline Shaw and featuring an ensemble of artists including Fleming herself. The transition back to live performance was smooth and satisfying, with Reynaldo Hahn’s “L’Heure exquise” and “Les Étoiles” giving Fleming a chance to luxuriate in the delicacy of French song, her phrasing sensitive and luminous.

The latter half of the program moved steadily toward the theatrical and contemporary—Alan Fletcher’s clever “The Cuckoo,” John Kander’s moving “A Letter from Sullivan Ballou,” and Barnatan’s dazzling renditions of Earl Wild’s Gershwin etudes, which earned a rare mid-program burst of applause. As the evening neared its end, Fleming brought emotional depth to “So Big/So Small” from Dear Evan Hansen and a loving reverence to “The Sound of Music,” before closing with Andrew Lippa’s “The Diva,” a self-aware and joyfully tongue-in-cheek finale that seemed to wink at her own legendary status.

But beneath the glamour and polish of the program was something far more grounded—a genuine call to reconnect with the natural world, to pay attention to its beauty and its fragility. Fleming’s artistry has always been rooted in communication, in making something vast feel personal. This program did exactly that. It reminded the audience not just of the power of a great voice, but of the power of listening.

In the end, Voice of Nature was more than a concert. It was an invitation to feel, to reflect, and, perhaps, to change.

Thank you Renée for a wonderful night of music! We hope to have you back in Minnesota again soon! 

Photo courtesy of Renée Fleming