Fleming's brand new bag

You've heard it all before. The crossover story. Rock musician goes classical. Opera singer goes popular. Whatever. This time, it's America's favourite soprano, Renée Fleming, who's abandoning Handel and Strauss in favour of Leonard Cohen ( Hallelujah), Arcade Fire ( Intervention), Death Cab For Cutie ( Soul Meets Body) and Muse ( Endlessly). And this time it's different.

Fleming's new album, Dark Hope, doesn't present her as an opera singer at all. The idea was proposed to her by Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein of Q Prime, whose acts include Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Josh Groban. She freely admits she didn't know most of the songs they were talking about. But she describes herself as "voice-obsessed" and once she'd taken up the project, she wanted to step out of the classical world and learn a new kind of singing.

The new Fleming voice is out on Mercury. Don’t expect anything, except Renée Fleming like you’ve never heard her before. See reneefleming.com