{"id":912,"date":"2014-02-13T11:51:38","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T16:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=912"},"modified":"2014-03-11T01:07:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T05:07:14","slug":"of-football-flags-and-fleming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/of-football-flags-and-fleming\/","title":{"rendered":"Of football, flags and Fleming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you think the National Anthem is difficult to sing? So does one of the greatest singers in the world.<\/p>\n

\"Renee<\/a>
Renee Fleming singing the National Anthem<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year\u2019s Super Bowl was one of the worst ever, but the performance of the anthem was one of the best ever, thanks to opera star Renee Fleming, who was the voice of choice in the bicentennial year of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics to the song 200 years ago, joining them to a melody by a British composer. The tune\u2019s range and the words\u2019 convolutions make the anthem dicey to perform, as Fleming told The New York Times a few days before her performance in the New Jersey stadium that hosted football\u2019s final game.
\n
\n

\"Sheet<\/a>
Sheet music of the National Anthem, 1861<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Fleming, who has sung the anthem before a World Series game and at a concert in England to mark Queen Elizabeth\u2019s diamond jubilee, admitted that \u201ceveryone has difficulty in the same place [in the song] because there are these inverted clauses.\u201d<\/p>\n

She cited, \u201cWhose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,\/O\u2019er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.\u201d Singers can get hopelessly entangled in such phrases, Fleming said, noting they were \u201ctough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soprano admitted that \u201cI go to sleep and I wake up doing this.\u201d She meant mulling the many traps in Key\u2019s twisted construction and odd vocabulary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole song\u201d can trap singers, she said, even though \u201cit\u2019s only two minutes. It\u2019s not like you have a three-hour-long opera to redeem yourself. There\u2019s no perfect performance in opera, there just isn\u2019t, but this [anthem] has to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporting her in the stadium were the New Jersey Symphony and a 32-voice choir. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be by myself,\u201d she told the Times.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An early image of Key<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anticipating the many landmines of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d Fleming joked that \u201ceveryone says, \u2018Just have fun and enjoy it.\u2019 I say, \u2018I\u2019ll have a blast at 6:30. I go on at 6:18.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result was something to salute. She did a superb job of presenting the National Anthem, as did those accompanying her, and she wisely followed the advice of another singer to \u201cstart low\u201d because the finish \u2013 \u201cland of the free\u201d \u2013 involves a leap upward that derails lesser performers.<\/p>\n

(Renee Fleming\u2019s singing of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d can be viewed on YouTube.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you think the National Anthem is difficult to sing? So does one of the greatest singers in the world. This year\u2019s Super Bowl was one of the worst ever, but the performance of the anthem was one of the best ever, thanks to opera star Renee Fleming, who was the voice of choice in… continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[105,104,176,177],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-lessons","tag-francis-scott-key","tag-national-anthem","tag-renee-fleming","tag-the-star-spangled-banner"],"yoast_head":"\nOf football, flags and Fleming - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/of-football-flags-and-fleming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Of football, flags and Fleming - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you think the National Anthem is difficult to sing? 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