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And if I don't sing, I don't get paid.
For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice.
My roots really instilled Chicago values in me.
I don't like confrontation; I just like to sing.
I know I'm an opera singer, but we're actors, too.
Trying to look glamorous while singing is not easy.
I'm American by birth, but I consider myself Canadian.
After I turn 50, I would like to sing Verdi's 'Attila.'
I walk around the house in my pajamas all day if I want to.
Most voices get weaker and frailer. I seem to be getting better with age.
Opera tells stories that all ages can relate to: love, death, revenge, etc.
You go to the gym to make sure you have the stamina to breathe in the corsets.
I tell young singers not to listen to themselves. What I hear is not what you hear.
I love the tragic side. I don't do 'happy' onstage. I like the dark, the disturbed.
You went to your first Broadway play or musical at some point, right? Come to opera.
I am so proud to call myself Canadian! Thank you, Canada, for welcoming me with open arms!
Singing bel canto is like walking on a tightrope - especially with a larger voice like mine.
Opera - above and beyond anything else - is about the music, and it should be about the music.
I'm going to the gym and really taking care of myself and trying to stay fit, eating properly.
When I teach master classes, I tell young singers if the foundation isn't good, the house will crumble.
HD is not forgiving. Once you see your face for the first time in a movie cinema, you run straight to the gym.
Artists shouldn't deal with business stuff; that's not what we're trained in, and most of us aren't good at it.
The vocal cords are a muscle, and like any other muscle in the body, they can be strained. So you have to warm up.
People have this idea that opera singers are overweight and sit at home eating bonbons. But I consider myself an athlete.
I think the power of opera has been shifted from the music to the director, because this is a very visual age that we live in.
I have the best job in the whole world because I get paid to do something I love. How many people do you know who can say that?
I perform in opera houses in the centres of big cities. We live in 20 acres of forest. You need that space to recover and renew.
We live in a very disposable society, and people want everything right away, but unfortunately, vocal technique doesn't come overnight.
Temperament and tightness often go together. But if you're tight, you can't sing. So I have to have that tension in my body but not in my voice.
When I am on the opera stage, I am playing someone else. In recitals, I even have the chance to talk to the audience, which is something you don't get to do in opera.
I always think of my father when I sing arias about loss and love and longing. It gave me that definite deep sorrow that one can only get from life experience, you know?
I would have to say that my very first encounter with the arts was when my mother bought me my first record player when I was six years old as well as a Karen Carpenter record.
When I was signing up for the University of Southern California's music program, I flipped a coin to decide my major. If it came up heads, it would be flute - tails would be voice.
I absolutely love Canada, and I wouldn't live anywhere else. It's half American and half European, and I really enjoy that. And the people are just fantastic - nicer than any people in the world.
Temperament can really take a toll on the voice. If you get tight in your body with the acting, then you can get tight in your voice. And then you can get tired, and you can damage yourself vocally.
You have to be in tune with your body and know when your body is saying, 'That's enough, you're done for the day.' If you over-fatigue and are totally stressed, you get sick. And if I get sick, I can't work.
When you do a 'messa di voce,' that means you start soft, you crescendo into loud - and then you go back to soft again. Some people call it circus tricks, but in bel canto, it's really written into the music.
If I can transport audiences for the three or four hours they're at the opera, to make them forget all of their worries, the bills they have to pay and all that, then I've done my job. That, for me, is very gratifying.
It's the worst feeling, coming back after a performance when you are on a real high, and you go back alone to an apartment or a hotel room. People think we sit in hotels and eat bon bons. But the lifestyle can be very stressful.
I guess my first professional experience was when my church choir director told my mother that I had a gift with my voice and said that I should think about auditioning, at 11 years old, for the chorus of our regional opera company.
What if you didn't have education for sports? People with a natural inclination for sports, athletes without any kind of education, without any kind of training, they would just be couch athletes instead of the world class Olympians that we have.
I think Chicagoans have a great set of values. You know what I mean? Kindness. Morals. Ethics. People in Chicago do the right thing. If somebody falls on the street, someone will actually stop and help them up. That doesn't happen in certain other cities.
For sure, one moment really defined the path that I was to take in the future, and that was when I won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York in April of 1995. I had just turned 25 two days before the finals concert, and when I won, I had no idea how my life would change because of it.
Even when I'm not onstage singing, there's always music going on in my head. It's a curse and a blessing in a way - it's sitting in bed at night, trying to go to sleep, while the music keeps playing in your head - especially when you're trying to learn something new and you're trying to memorize it and get everything.