Tune in to a free broadcast, live from the Klein Music Tent. 

Get ready for orchestral and vocal magic when 2023 Kennedy Center honoree Renée Fleming performs songs by Richard Strauss and a world premiere by Alan Fletcher. It’s been said that Strauss had a lifelong love affair with the soprano voice. He was undoubtedly inspired in part by his wife Pauline, a famous soprano in her day. Strauss’s writing for sopranos fully displays their vocal prowess, and some of his most memorable operatic roles are for the soprano voice. Renée Fleming has long had an extraordinary affinity for Strauss’s music, creating unforgettable heroines on the opera stage. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear her in some of Strauss’s most sensuous and moving orchestral songs.

For many, the opening fanfare of Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra was the most memorable feature of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. More people have heard those 22 iconic bars than have listened to the entire work since its completion in 1896. Here’s your chance to experience the piece which prompted Strauss to say, “With Zarathustra I have given humankind the greatest present that has ever been made to it so far.” (He must have forgotten about fire and the wheel.) In spite of giving his tone poem the same title as Nietzsche’s thorny philosophical work, Strauss initially denied any connection between his music and Nietzsche’s book apart from poetic imagery and chapter headings. As you listen, you can ponder Strauss’s musical description of the evolution of the human race from its origin up to Nietzsche’s concept of the Superman, or simply bask in bursts of orchestral color.

Another sonic feast concludes the program, with extra brass on the lawn bringing new excitement to Resphighi’s The Pines of Rome. The piece is famous for being among the first to use electronic sounds, namely the recording of a nightingale at the end of the third movement. It’s been claimed that Respighi himself recorded the bird.

Experience the spectacular artistry of Renée Fleming and works by some of the greatest orchestrators of all time as the Aspen Festival Orchestra ushers in the 75th anniversary season!