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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

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" 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. "

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" When I was 11 years old, I wanted to sing Tosca. "

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" The vocal cords are a muscle, and like any other muscle in the body, they can be strained. So you have to warm up. "

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" 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. "

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" I am so proud to call myself Canadian! Thank you, Canada, for welcoming me with open arms! "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

" I don't like happy stuff. I'm not funny. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" I tell young singers not to listen to themselves. What I hear is not what you hear. "

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

" 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 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

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

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 know I'm an opera singer, but we're actors, too. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" Artists shouldn't deal with business stuff; that's not what we're trained in, and most of us aren't good at it. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

" We live in a very disposable society, and people want everything right away, but unfortunately, vocal technique doesn't come overnight. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

" 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. "

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

Sondra Radvanovsky