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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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" 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

Father

Love

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Medicine

Voice

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

" 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. "

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

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Walking

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. "

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

" 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. "

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Stamina

You

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Warm

You

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Funny

Stuff

" 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. "

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Proud

Myself

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Side

Love

" 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. "

" 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. "

" My roots really instilled Chicago values in me. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Roots

Values

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

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "