By Sophia Chen ’20, Staff Writer

“Living on Love,” performed in the Longacre Theatre, is based on the play “Peccadillo” by Garson Kanin. It is a star vehicle for Renee Fleming and displays her in her quintessential element as the diva. Ms. Fleming portrays Raquel, an opera diva whose career is crashing. Raquel lives with her husband, Vito (Douglas Sills), a short-tempered Maestro who, throughout the play, tends to hurl nearby sharp objects when irritated. Vito, whose work is also, at the moment, delayed, has decided to make some money by writing his memoir. His ghostwriter, Robert, becomes extremely frustrated with the Maestro and instead writes a memoir on Raquel.

You cannot help but smile from the moment the curtain opens as you hear the living legend and four time Grammy winner Renee Fleming’s soprano voice until the last curtain call. Renee Fleming’s voice left the opera lover wishing for more arias and left the audience longing for more. My initial reaction to the play was sheer delight in anticipation for more of the world-renounced soprano’s voice. Nonetheless, the brilliantly funny comedy about the real fears and neuroses that maestros and divas share creates an endearing and intimate picture of the life of an artist. The whole play is executed to perfection through the stellar performances of Fleming, Sills, Chlumsky, O’Connell, Hammond, and Robertson.