Renee Fleming: By Request (the very best of)

'By Request' is the new must have collection from the world's leading soprano featuring a collection of her greatest & most popular recordings from Mozart to Puccini.

The new recordings include the closing scene of Act 1 of Verdi's La Traviata - a role which Renée Fleming sang for the first time, to enormous critical acclaim, in Houston, Texas earlier this year. Violetta's great scene which closes Act 1 is one of the most brilliant in all opera and is regarded as a showcase for all great sopranos. Fleming will sing the role again (this time under the baton of Valery Gergiev) to open the 2003-4 season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York in September '03. N.B. The off-stage voice of Alfredo, which punctuates the scene, is sung on this new recording by Decca's recently signed Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja (who will record his first solo album for release in Spring 2004).

Another newly recorded track is Richard Strauss' orchestral song Cacilie. Renée Fleming is the outstanding Strauss interpreter of our time and this glorious song is one of her 'calling cards', often given as a hugely popular encore.

Also included on the album is the Song to the Moon from Dvorak's Rusalka (Renée Fleming's signature role) (taken from the Decca recording under Sir Georg Solti), as well as the Countess' aria from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, another of Renée Fleming's great stage roles.

All the favourite soprano arias are here - from Catalani's Ebben? … Ne andro lontana (made popular by the film Diva) and the haunting Casta Diva from Bellini's Norma to the most popular of all Puccini's arias for the female voice - O mio babbino caro and Madam Butterfly's heartbreaking Un bel di…