For soprano Renée Fleming, novelty is one of the keys to happiness - as her latest album shows

Soprano Renée Fleming’s new recording, Distant Light, features a work by Samuel Barber along with pieces by Swedish composer Anders Hillborg and – surprisingly – Bjork.

With her 58th birthday approaching on February 14, Fleming’s performances in Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier this month at London’s Royal Opera and at the Met this spring could be her last in the standard repertoire.

“I haven’t found too many things that are appropriate for me because my voice has not gotten heavier or more dramatic,” she says. “This will be my last Marschallin, but I definitely am hoping to do some new work in the future, and there’s a couple of things buzzing right now.”

Distant Light , released on January 6, opens with Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a 1948 work set to a text by poet and novelist James Agee and is a perfect fit for Fleming’s silvery, soaring soprano. It links with Hillborg’s The Strand Settings, a 20-minute, four-song cycle debuted by Fleming with the New York Philharmonic in 2013. Locales – a porch on a summer evening, a roof on a house near the sea on a starlit night, bees buzzing at a bus terminal – create a textured, emotional soundscape.

“Because I’ve done all my standard rep, Decca said, ‘Hey, you haven’t recorded the Barber.’ And I’m shocked that they recommended it because these major orchestral works are not exactly radio,” she says.