MY WEEKEND: Renée Fleming

Opera great Renée Fleming has four Grammys and the distinction of inspiring a dessert: a chocolate confection Daniel Boulud dubbed La Diva Renée. These days, the 59-year-old soprano’s been singing a different tune — in Broadway’s “Carousel,” which brought her a Tony nomination. The mother of two grown daughters lives on the Upper West Side with husband Tim Jessell, and has lately discovered a whole new side of town, she tells BARBARA HOFFMAN. Here’s where you’ll find her when she’s not onstage.

I’ve always loved the Theater District, because I love theater, but I’ve never spent too much time walking around here. West of Eighth Avenue, there’s a lot to explore: beautiful blocks with large townhomes that make me think about the history of New York, and what kind of merchants and mariners lived there. There’s a hundred-year-old restaurant here, Barbetta, that has a hidden garden, right on Restaurant Row!

My big thing is biking between shows through Riverside Park. It’s the most popular biking trail in the country, evidently, and it’s spectacular! Riding by Hudson Yards and watching the Shed [arts center] develop is fascinating, because I’m going to open the Shed a year from now. There’s a Pier i Cafe at 70th Street that’s been there for a while, and it gets nicer every year.

I love jazz clubs — Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, the Village Vanguard. The nice thing about jazz is, it’s late at night so you can go, even if you’re in theater.

Carnegie Hall is another home of mine and so, of course, is Lincoln Center. Daniel’s restaurants, Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud, have taken good care of me. I like the tagine at Boulud Sud, and Bar Boulud has a lot of charcuterie, which late at night really isn’t my thing, but I love the salads.

The restaurant that takes care of me here is Bond 45. Any time I call them, they’ll put me at a table off to the side and turn off the music in the booth, so I don’t have to shout. My biggest problem in restaurants is talking over noise. I dream of starting a chain of restaurants called Silencio — not that you’d have to be silent, but you wouldn’t have to compete with the music. Trust me, there are a lot of people who’d prefer to have a conversation over dinner and not shout. I was at Bond 45 once with a famous designer, and her husband ordered Manhattans for the table. I’d never had a Manhattan before. Since then, I’m slightly addicted. I’ve become a bit of a Pavlov’s dog, because now, when I walk into that restaurant, I immediately start to drool.