Renée Fleming’s Cities that Sing: Paris 
comes to theatres August 26 and Cities that Sing: Venice debuts September 16 for one-day-only presentations in select  IMAX® and Fathom theatres

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

 

Renée Fleming’s Cities that Sing: Paris, comes to theatres one-day-only on August 26. Step onto the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet alongside superstar soprano Renée Fleming. Tenor Piotr Beczala and performers Axelle Fanyo and Alexandre Duhamel join an exquisite cinematic journey into the sights, sounds, and history of the City of Lights.

Renée Fleming’s Cities that Sing: Venice, the second of two immersive opera experiences Filmed for IMAX in theatres one-day-only on September 16. A journey through the music and culture of Venice, follow   the American Soprano on a guided tour of Venice as seen through the lens of opera history, with musical performances at the legendary Teatro La Fenice by Fleming, Francesco Meli, Mattia Olivieri, Paola Gardina, with Orchestra Del Teatro La Fenice conducted by Riccardo Frizza. 

---

 

For immediate release - New York, NY - IMAX announces the release of Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing: Paris for one-day-only on August 26.  The second installment of the series, Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing: Venice releases one-day-only on September 16. The full-length films feature American soprano Renée Fleming as she explores Paris and Venice through the lens of opera. Presented by IMAX and Stage Access, directed by Francois-René Martin and produced by Tripp Hornick and Elmar Kruse, Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing was filmed using IMAX-certified cameras. Both films will be screened in select IMAX and Fathom theatres throughout the U.S. This is the first collaboration between IMAX and Fathom Events which will allow moviegoers to see this series at a Fathom location if they do not live in close proximity to an IMAX theatre.  

Tickets for both Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing: Paris and Venice are on sale now at Imax.com/ReneeFleming     

“My career has taken me to stages all over the world singing repertoire that is so virtuosic, so beautiful and enriching, and now I get to bring some of that experience to movie screens through this spectacular pairing of IMAX and Fathom Events,” said Fleming. “This is an extraordinary combination that allows these two special films to be seen by the largest possible audience. Opera is called grand opera for a reason: It’s larger than life, incorporating every art — instrumental music, singing, drama, poetry — into one major art form that is a wonderful experience on the big screen.”

In Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing: Paris, Fleming embarks on a tour of historical arts and culture institutions throughout the City of Lights. Filmed at the renowned The´a^tre du Cha^telet, Fleming is joined by acclaimed tenor Piotr Beczala, soprano Axelle Fanyo, baritone Alexandre Duhamel, and the Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comte for chamber pieces and arias conducted by Jean-François Verdier. The program will include selections accompanied by pianist Tanguy de Williencourt and feature repertoire from Reynaldo Hahn’s L'heure Exquise, Gabriel Faure’s Pleurs d'or, and Léo Delibes Les filles de Cadix. Opera fans will also recognize Barcarolle from Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Au fond du temple Sain (The Pearl Fishers Duet) from Georges Bizet's Les pecheurs de Perles, and conclude with selections from Bizet’s famed Carmen, and Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. In between selections of some of the greatest music ever written, Fleming journeys into the places and spaces that make Paris one of the world’s great centers of art and fashion, including conversations with internationally acclaimed Couturier Alexis Mabille and praised Canadian Opera Director Robert Carsen reflecting on the influence of Parisien culture on classical music from its origins through today.

In Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing: Venice, Fleming Explores the birthplace of opera and the center of culture for centuries, diving deep into the history of Italian opera, mixing sightseeing and conversation with performances of works that trace their beginnings to the city. These masterworks include Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata, Gioachino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Giacomo Puccini’s La Boheme and Tosca, and more, performed at the legendary Teatro La Fenice by Fleming, Francesco Meli, Mattia Olivieri, Paola Gardina, with Orchestra Del Teatro La Fenice conducted by Riccardo Frizza. Fleming also sits down with her contemporaries, including La Fenice’s Artistic Director, Fortunato Ortombina, and Conductor Riccardo Frizza, as they explore the city’s landscape and its unique history, art, and music.? 

For a list of participating theaters and to purchase tickets please visit: www.imax.com/reneefleming 

DOWNLOAD ASSETS

---

 

About Renée Fleming

Soprano and artistic advisor Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls. Honored with four Grammy® awards and the US National Medal of Arts, Fleming has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. A ground-breaking distinction came in 2008 when Fleming became the first woman in the 125-year history of the Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala. In 2014, she brought her voice to vast new audience as the only classical artist ever to sing The Star-Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl. 

In November, Fleming starred at the Metropolitan Opera in the world premiere staging of The Hours, a new opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and award-winning film. Known for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera, Fleming has starred in and hosted an array of television and radio broadcasts, including The Met: Live in HD and Live from Lincoln Center. She has been a regular guest star for the PBS National Memorial Day Concert and the A Capitol Fourth telecasts from the East Lawn of the US Capitol. Fleming has sung with great artists ranging from Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti to Elton John, Sting, Paul Simon, Josh Groban, and Joan Baez.

Fleming’s voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings. She has recorded everything from complete operas and song recitals to indie rock and jazz; and her album Signatures was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for the National Recording Registry, as an “aural treasure worthy of preservation as part of America’s patrimony.” Fleming’s latest album, released last October, is Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, with Yannick Nézet-Seguin as pianist. A collection of classic songs and specially commissioned world premieres, the album sounds an alarm about the climate crisis, focusing on nature as both inspiration and casualty of humans. 

In 2019, Fleming appeared opposite Ben Whishaw in Norma Jean Baker of Troy to open The Shed in New York City. Later that year, she starred in the London premiere of The Light in the Piazza, bringing the acclaimed production to Los Angeles and Chicago in the autumn. Fleming earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. 

In recent years, Fleming has become known as a leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience, giving presentations with scientists and practitioners around the world, and winning Research!America’s Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion. In 2020, Fleming launched Music and Mind LIVE, a weekly web show exploring the connections between arts, human health, and the brain, amassing nearly 700,000 views, from 70 countries.

Fleming’s book The Inner Voice was published by Viking Penguin in 2004 and is now in its sixteenth printing. It is also published in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Poland, Russia, and China. Artistic Advisor to the Kennedy Center and Advisor for Special Projects at LA Opera, Fleming also leads SongStudio at Carnegie Hall. She is Co-Director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival. Fleming’s other awards include the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, and France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

---

 

About François-René Martin

François-René Martin is a director of musical films and collaborates with numerous production companies, television channels and French and international musical institutions: the Opera National de Paris, the Mariinsky Theatre of Saint Petersburg, Aspen Music Festival, La Folle Journée de Nantes, Verbier Festival, Les Chorégies d'Orange, the Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival, Tomorrow’s Circus World Festival. 

Since 2007 when he signed an amazing series of short films on classical music Presto for France Televisions, he has specialized in the realization of symphonic concerts, operas, ballets, circus shows and he accompanies many artists such as Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Angelin Preljocaj or Raphaël Pichon in their audiovisual projects... 

Among his most recent projects, we can mention Quinte & Sens, a film co-directed with the artist Gordon which stages the Orchestre de Paris in a "revolutionary way" at the Philharmonie de Paris; the film Lux Aeterna which he shot at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris with Teodor Currentzis and his ensemble Musica Aeterna; or the historic complete Bruckner Symphonies at the Sankt Florian Monastery (Austria) with the München Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev... 

He also filmed live broadcasts of the Opéra national de Paris, such as Verdi's Aïda (Lotte de Beer), Massenet's Manon (Vincent Huguet), Swan Lake (Nureyev/Petipas). He has also filmed mythical productions such as Moses und Aron (Schönberg / Castellucci), Carmen (Bizet / Bieito) or the Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc / Py).

François-René Martin is also the co-founder of the Mirare record label, which has released more than four hundred titles with emblematic artists such as Pierre Hantaï, Boris Berezovsky, Anne Queffélec.

---

 

About the Performers - Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing: Paris

Piotr Beczala (tenor) made his Royal Opera debut in 2004 as the Italian Tenor (Der Rosenkavalier) and has since sung Faust, Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), Lensky (Evgeny Onegin), Verdi’s Requiem in concert, Rodolfo (La bohème), Roméo (Roméo et Juliette) and Alfredo Germont (La Traviata) for The Royal Opera. Beczala grew up in Czechowice-Dziedzice and studied at the Katowice Academy of Music with Sena Jurinac. He began his career in Linz, where he also studied with Dale Fundling. He went on to become a company member of Zürich Opera and now sings for the world's leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York, La Scala, Milan, Paris Opéra, Vienna State Opera, Dresden Semperoper, and Bavarian State Opera. Beczala has sung in concert and recital at major venues including Carnegie Hall, New York, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Berlin Konzerthaus.

Alexandre Duhamel (baritone)  studied at the Paris National Conservatoire and was a member of the Opera de Paris Young Artists Program. He was awarded ‘Le Prix Lyrique du Cercle Carpeaux’ and ‘Le Prix de Association pour le rayonnement de l'Opéra national de Paris’, which both reward the most noticeable young singer during a season. Duhamel made his debut at the Opera national de Paris in Gianni Schicchi and returned for L'Horloge et Le Chat L'Enfant & les Sortilèges, Jake Wallace La fancuilla del West, Masetto Don Giovanni, Mordred Le Roi Arthus, Cithéron Platée.  He made his US debut with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot for L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. 

Axelle Fanyo (soprano), after studying Musicology at La Sorbonne Paris IV and receiving a violin award from the Regional School of Music in La Courneuve (France), joined the National School of Music Paris (CNSMDP) in Glenn Chambers’s class. She graduated in 2016 and obtained her Master’s Degree. In competition, 2019 saw her win the prestigious Kaleidoscope Competition in the USA; she was also a double prize-winner at the Concours-Récital du Festival Classica in Montreal, won first prize at the International Song Competition in Enschede, and is a former winner of the Young Artist prize at the International French song competition in Toulouse. Most recently, Fanyo was selected to compete in the prestigious Operalia competition in Moscow.

Jean- François Verdier (Conductor) is presented as one of the most interesting personalities of the French musical world. First solo clarinetist of the Paris Opera Orchestra, considered one of the best European clarinetists, he is a laureate of the international competitions of Tokyo, Vienna, Anvers, Colmar, and Lugano. He has played under the direction of Bernstein, Ozawa, Muti, Gergiev, Salonen, Boulez, Jordan, Dohnanyi, Barenboim, Dudamel, Nelsons.... He is also a guest of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Winner of the Bruno Walter Prize of the 2001 Lugano. He is the permanent conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon (2008-2010) and since 2010 artistic director of the Victor Hugo Orchestra, which has made several internationally acclaimed recordings (two Chocs Classica, Choc Jazz, OperaMag's Diamond...). 

---

 

About the Performers - Renée Fleming’s Cities That Sing: Venice

Francesco Meli (tenor) was born in Genoa in 1980 and began his singing studies at the age of seventeen at the Conservatorio Paganini, continuing with Vittorio Terranova and gaining recognition at several competitions for opera singers, including the Caruso, the Zandonai and the Tosti competitions. In 2002 he debuted in Macbeth, the Petite Messe Solennelle and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. This marked the start of an outstanding career. He has sung over twenty roles as La Scala including roles in in Otello, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Maria Stuarda, Der Rosenkavalier, Carmen, Giovanna d’Arco, I due Foscari, Don Carlo, La traviata, Ernani, Tosca, Il Trovatore, Aida, L’elisir d’amore, Macbeth and Un ballo in maschera. Meli has performed under the world’s most eminent conductors, working regularly with Riccardo Chailly, Fabio Luisi, Riccardo Muti, Christian Thielemann, Gianandrea Noseda,Antonio Pappano, and Yuri Temirkanov. Recent engagements include Simon Boccanegra in London, Genoa and Vienna, Ernani and La Traviata at La Scala, the Verdi Requiem conducted by Riccardo Muti in Tokyo, Baden-Baden and at the Salzburg Festival, Aida at La Fenice and in a concert performance in Chicago with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muti. 

Mattia Oliveri (baritone) graduated early from the Music Conservatory G.B. Martini in Bologna, under the tutelage of baritone Maurizio Leoni. In 2009 Olivieri was admitted at the Scuola dell’Opera Italiana of Teatro Comunale di Bologna and began collaborating with musical institutions such as Martina Franca Festival and Semperoper Dresden. In Summer 2012 he participated at the Accademia Rossiniana at Pesaro’s ROF and has been admitted at the Centre de Perfeccionament of the Opera Valencia where among other activities he sang Schaunard 
in La bohème. Among his roles are Masetto (Don Giovanni), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Nardo (La finta giardiniera), the Conte in (Le Nozze di Figaro) and many others. He will make his first USA appearance in Houston, as well as in a new Rossini project at the Glyndebourne Festival. He will soon return to the Bayerische Staatsoper, and make his debut at ROH Covent Garden and at Teatro Real de Madrid.

Paola Gardina (mezzo soprano) has appeared in major opera houses throughout the world, including Teatro alla Scala, Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Real, and many others working with esteemed conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Peter Maag, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Barenboim, Jeffrey Tate, Eliahu Inbal and Bruno Bartoletti. She won the Toti Dal Monte Vocal Competition singing excerpts from La Cerenrentola and Le Nozze di Figaro. Her many roles include Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Anne Seymour (Anna Bolena), Adalgisa (Norma,) Giofreddo (Rinaldo), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Romeo (I Capuleti e Montecchi) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni.). On DVD she appears in Cosi fan tutte and I Capuleti e Montecchi at the Ravenna Festival under the baton of Riccardo Muti for Oscar winning film director Michael Haneke.

Riccardo Frizza (conductor), born 1971 in Brescia, studied at the Milan Conservatory and the Accademia Chigiana di Siena and is considered to be one of the leading conductors of his generation, particularly devoted to the nineteenth century Italian operatic repertoire.
In Italy he is a frequent guest at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Teatro Regio in Turin, La Fenice in Venice, Opera di Roma, Teatro San Carlo, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the Verdi Festival in Parma and the Macerata Opera Festival. He has conducted at the Opéra National de Paris, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, New York Metropolitan Opera, the Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real in Madrid and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Münich.

---

 

About IMAX

IMAX, an innovator in entertainment technology, combines proprietary software, architecture, and equipment to create experiences that take you beyond the edge of your seat to a world you've never imagined. Top filmmakers and studios are utilizing IMAX systems to connect with audiences in extraordinary ways, making IMAX's network among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event films around the globe.  Streaming technology company SSIMWAVE, an IMAX subsidiary, is a leader in AI-driven video quality solutions for media and entertainment companies.
 
IMAX is headquartered in New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles, with additional offices in London, Dublin, Tokyo, and Shanghai. As of March 31, 2023, there were 1,711 IMAX systems (1,631 commercial multiplexes, 12 commercial destinations, 68 institutional) operating in 87 countries and territories. Shares of IMAX China Holding, Inc., a subsidiary of IMAX Corporation, trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code "1970."  
 
IMAX®, IMAX® Dome, IMAX® 3D, IMAX® 3D Dome, Experience It In IMAX®, The IMAX Experience®, An IMAX Experience®, An IMAX 3D Experience®, IMAX DMR®, DMR®, Filmed For IMAX™, IMAX LIVE™, IMAX Enhanced™, IMAX nXos®, SSIMWAVE® and Films to the Fullest®, are trademarks and trade names of the Company or its subsidiaries that are registered or otherwise protected under laws of various jurisdictions. For more information, visit www.imax.com. You may also connect with IMAX on Instagram (www.instagram.com/imax), Facebook (www.facebook.com/imax), Twitter (www.twitter.com/imax), YouTube (www.youtube.com/imaxmovies) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/imax).

---

 

About Stage Access

Stage Access, founded by Bruce H. Lipnick, is defining the performing arts in the digital era as a leading company in North America that produces, distributes and licenses classical arts programming across multiple platforms. With Emmy® and Tony® award-winning performer Kelsey Grammer as its featured on-screen host, Stage Access produces and co-produces acclaimed original programs, including Yo-Yo Ma: Six Solo Bach Cello Suites from the Odeon, Athens; and The 3 Tenors: From Caracalla to the World – The 30th Anniversary Documentary. Stage Access is available in the U.S. and Canada across major streaming platforms, including online, iOS, Android, AppleTV, Amazon Fire and Roku.

---

 

About Fathom Events

Fathom Events is a recognized leader in the entertainment industry as one of the top distributors of content to movie theaters in North America. Owned by AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: AMC); Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK); and Regal, a subsidiary of the Cineworld Group (LSE: CINE.L), Fathom operates the largest cinema distribution network, delivering a wide variety of programming and experiences to cinema audiences in all of the top U.S. markets and to more than 45 countries. For more information, visit www.FathomEvents.com.

---

 

Contact

Andrew Ousley
Unison Media
IMAX@unison.media