Renee Fleming broke new ground in rock music with her 2010 album Dark Hope. With Dark Hope, Fleming took a daring detour from her classical recordings into rock music, singing with a lower register accompanied by guitar, drums, and bass. Dark Hope included Fleming's covers of songs by Leonard Cohen, Peter Gabriel, and Jefferson Airplane as well as more experimental songs, showcasing her ability to perform outside her classical genre. Critics saw Dark Hope as controversial but it demonstrated Fleming's artistry and understanding of rock.

1. RENEE FLEMING BROKE NEW GROUND IN
ROCK WITH DARK HOPE
Christopher Roberts, Universal Music

2. INTRODUCTION
 Christopher Roberts, the former head of Universal Music Group’s
Classics and Jazz division, helped shape the careers of a wide
range of opera and pop performers, beloved soprano Renee
Fleming among them. Under Christopher Roberts’ supervision,
her career with Universal Music’s Decca label ranged from
recordings of classical masterpieces by Puccini to 20th-century
show tunes by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
With her 2010 release Dark Hope, Fleming took a daring, and to
some critics controversial, detour into rock music. On that album,
she fine-tuned her ability to sing in a lower register, accompanied
by the darker tones of guitar, drums, and bass. Before she began
recording the live tracks in 2009, Fleming had little previous
experience as a listener or performer of rock.

3. DARK HOPE
 She later described the process of learning and recording the
new album as a journey into another universe.
Dark Hope includes Fleming’s covers of Leonard Cohen’s
standard “Hallelujah,” along with “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel
and Jefferson Airplane’s “Today.” It also features edgy lyrics from
Muse, Arcade Fire, and Death Cab for Cutie, as well as the
gothic-tinged message song “With Twilight as My Guide” by Mars
Volta, and the youthful protest song “Oxygen” by Willy Mason.
These might at first might seem counterintuitive choices for a
performer with Fleming’s quintessentially classical voice and
phrasing, yet her performance on Dark Hope rises far above the
typical crossover album to reach new heights of artistry and a
deeper understanding of each song’s core meaning.