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" After I turn 50, I would like to sing Verdi's 'Attila.' "

Sondra Radvanovsky

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" 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? "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" Trying to look glamorous while singing is not easy. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" You go to the gym to make sure you have the stamina to breathe in the corsets. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" I love the tragic side. I don't do 'happy' onstage. I like the dark, the disturbed. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" I'm American by birth, but I consider myself Canadian. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" You went to your first Broadway play or musical at some point, right? Come to opera. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" And if I don't sing, I don't get paid. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" When I teach master classes, I tell young singers if the foundation isn't good, the house will crumble. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" Opera - above and beyond anything else - is about the music, and it should be about the music. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" I walk around the house in my pajamas all day if I want to. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" Most voices get weaker and frailer. I seem to be getting better with age. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" People have this idea that opera singers are overweight and sit at home eating bonbons. But I consider myself an athlete. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" My roots really instilled Chicago values in me. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" I'm going to the gym and really taking care of myself and trying to stay fit, eating properly. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" Singing bel canto is like walking on a tightrope - especially with a larger voice like mine. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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? "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" Opera tells stories that all ages can relate to: love, death, revenge, etc. "

Sondra Radvanovsky