NEW YORK -- Thanksgiving Day parade, Nobel Prize ceremony, Christmas concert at Carnegie Hall. What's a single mother to do?

Seth Wenig, Associated Press
In tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, Renee Fleming will sing from the Statue of Liberty float, accompanied by the Air Force band and chorus.
Click photo for larger image.

"I don't know," Renee Fleming, America's leading soprano and a divorced mother of two, says of her schedule. "I'm never on top of anything. But I'm constantly multitasking and scrambling. ... That's the biggest challenge, the juggling."

Fleming, who made her professional opera debut 20 years ago, took her daughters on the road when they were younger. But Amelia is now 14, and Sage is 11, so the singer has booked fewer opera appearances, which demand a larger commitment of time away from her New York home. When the 47-year-old Fleming does tour, the girls spend more time with their father, actor Rick Ross, their aunt or a nanny.

"So they can't get away with anything," she said jokingly during a recent interview.

Although tomorrow's parade begins near Fleming's Upper West Side apartment, she said she didn't know whether her daughters would join her. She'll be on the Statue of Liberty float, accompanied by the Air Force band and chorus.

Then, even before Americans fully digest their turkey, she's off to Europe for a series of orchestra concerts: Mannheim, Germany; Berlin; Lucerne, Switzerland; London; Munich. Then she heads to Sweden and Norway for the Nobel Prize ceremonies from Dec. 8-11.

At the Nobel presentations, she hopes to sing a duet with fellow Metropolitan Opera soprano Monica Yunus, daughter of Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

"She's a delight," said Fleming, who has Pittsburgh connections by way of family in Coraopolis. "I've known her since we've had the same voice teacher. And she sang 'Manon' with me recently at the Met. So I think it's fantastic. What an amazing family!"

Less than a week later, Fleming is back in North America, singing with the Hartford Symphony on Dec. 15 and the Montreal Symphony four days later. Her Carnegie concert on Dec. 21 with the Orchestra of St. Luke's features almost 20 holiday songs.

For those who can't make these concerts, two Fleming holiday shows -- "Sacred Songs" and the "Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Special" -- will be broadcast nationally on PBS stations in December (check local listings). There's also her new CD, "Homage: The Age of the Diva," No. 4 on Billboard's latest classical music chart.

Being a diva doesn't necessarily mean being temperamental. Fleming prefers to think of the word in its neutral definition -- a great female performer -- although she knows most people conjure up the negative connotations.

"I had a 20-minute-long interview today on the phone only about that word, and so I was almost pulling my hair out," she said. "I lobbied not to use that word anywhere near the CD because I knew it was going to become a constant conversation. However, when we tried to come up with an alternative -- soprano, prima donna -- it wasn't catchy."

Aside from popular arias "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's "Tosca" and "Di tale amor" from Verdi's "Il Trovatore," the CD with Valery Gergiev conducting the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre contains mostly obscure works.

"I was culling my own historic record collection and going to coaches that I know and love and asked, 'Do you have any jewels that the world doesn't know?'" Fleming recalled.

They found arias from operas by Tchaikovsky ("Oprichnik"), Janacek ("Jenufa"), Massenet ("Cleopatre"), Korngold ("Das Wunder der Heliane" and "Die Kathrin") and of course Fleming's beloved Richard Strauss ("Die Liebe der Danae").

Singing in Italian, Russian, Czech, French and German, Fleming displays her linguistic talents, in addition to her vocal versatility, technical mastery, expressiveness and passion.

Although the CD does include "Vissi d'arte," Fleming said she doesn't plan to add "Tosca" to her repertoire of 51 roles because it's too heavy for her voice.

She will be singing Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" on Feb. 24, returning to the role for the first time in 12 years. It will be one of the six Met performances this season to be simulcast in high definition format to hundreds of movie theaters around the world.

She's also thinking of performing Leonora in "Trovatore," and returning to "Jenufa," which she sang in 1993.

"My problem is that the next opportunity I have for a new opera is in 2012. That's how far ahead we work."

First Published: November 22, 2006, 5:00 a.m.