@bestofopera.en: Follow @bestofopera for the voices that refuse to be forgotten. 🎵 "Ave Maria" - Renée Fleming Ave Maria, gratia plena. Ave Maria. Ave Maria, full of grace. Ave Maria. At the Konserthuset in Stockholm, Renée Fleming sings alone, no character — soloist at the annual Nobel Prize concert, 2006, with Lawrence Renes leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. The audience hears "Ave Maria" and thinks it already knows the song — the Catholic prayer, by heart. But what Schubert composed in 1825 isn't the Latin prayer. He set a German poem: Adam Storck's translation of "The Lady of the Lake," by the Scot Walter Scott, published in 1810. In the poem, it's the character Ellen Douglas who opens with "Ave Maria" — and only repeats it in the refrain. The full Latin prayer text was stitched onto the melody much later — that version, not Storck's, is what the world sings today. The song — "Ellens dritter Gesang," Ellen's third song — was born in the summer of 1825, on vacation in Upper Austria. It changed clothes again in 1940: in Disney's "Fantasia," Stokowski arranged it for soprano and choir with brand-new English lyrics by Rachel Field — neither Storck's, nor the prayer's. Two years later, Fleming would become the first woman in 125 years of Metropolitan Opera history to open the season's gala night alone. Had you already heard the version Disney put in "Fantasia"? 🎼 Work: "Ellens dritter Gesang" (Ave Maria), D. 839, Op. 52 No. 6 🎹 Composer: Franz Schubert 🇦🇹 🎤 Performer: Renée Fleming 🇺🇸 📍 Recording: Nobel Prize Concert, Konserthuset (Stockholm), 2006 Follow for more stories that music keeps. #BestOfOpera #AveMaria #Schubert #ReneeFleming

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Friday 25 September 2026 17:00:04 GMT