Fair enough: it didn't work out, so she's not going ahead with it.  At least she's not citing 'moral objections' a la Jon Vickers and Tannhauser.

I meant "She'd", of course.  Serves me right for not proof-reading!

Entirely agreed - whatever happened to "the show must go on"??  I believe it was to have been a fully staged production, that went on to tour around USA and Europe.

Fleming's a singer who has never impressed me, and I fail to understand what the fuss is about.  If her acting were better her voice might be suited to operetta or soubrette roles.  Norma she is not, and never will be, and whoever cast her in this role was severely mistaken.

Sadly the reality of this escapade is that projects of this kind depend on the soprano's bankability,  and without a name that would reel in the corporate sponsors and media flea-circus,  the project is doomed to failure.  There are a hundred sopranos who could easily sing Norma magnificently...   but operas these days are cast on the basis of press-pics from ten years ago, and not on the basis of whether the performer could ever sing the role, or has even sung any similar roles    The fact they haven't even bothered trying to secure an alternative performer speaks volumes about the facile level with which this project has been (mis-)managed.

If it's only a concert performance, then on the one hand it is less galling that it should be cancelled just because Fleming dropped out.  On the other hand, it must surely make it easier to find somebody - even a famous somebody - available and willing to take her place at a year's notice (as presumably the time commitment for a visiting concert soloist is far less than for that of an opera production soloist.)  I do of course appreciate that in the US, there aren't many as bankable as Fleming.

I agree that Fleming would have been unsuited to the role in the first place.

Personally, I'm hoping to hear my next Norma in the Grange Park 2009 season