Renée Fleming "Dark Hope"

One of my favorite singers has a new CD coming out, only this time it's not opera but rather a bit of indie rock. At first blush I thought how could that be. I hate when opera singers use their full-throttle voices and try to sing loose pop songs. But when Renée put out her 2005 disc "Haunted Heart" which basically was jazz, I loved it. She let go of her high notes for more playful arrangements and introspective singing. Didn't feel as trained.

The "New York Times" has some fine articles on the subject.

Anythony Tommasini reviews it here. John Pereles reviews it here (John's a bit pretentious albeit a gifted reviewer, in my opinion). But their conversation together - here - is fascinating. They discuss is a record like this relevant today, how and if classical artists are successful in crossing over (and vice versa), or if Renée should have taken on this challenge to begin with.
I think an artist has every right to explore what they want. Paul McCartney and Billy Joel wrote classical, Sting did a classical CD, and even Elvis Costello did one. I say, keep the juices flowing, do what excites you. And with a good artist and true fans, we'll be here for the ride. In other words, um, yes, I'll be buying the disc.