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

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

Music Age Your

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

Love Would World

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

Yin Worries Very

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Love Age Tragic

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

Work Your Body Your

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

Love Life Experience

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

Music Would Voice

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

War You Warm

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.

Sondra Radvanovsky

Experience Years Year

I don't like confrontation; I just like to sing.

Sondra Radvanovsky

Us T Sing

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

Good Business Art

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Society Way Want

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Would Turn T

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Wit Walking Walk

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Car Yin Trying

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

Men Age Yourself

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

Music Art You

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

T Side Self

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

Men You Voice

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

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

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

Trying to look glamorous while singing is not easy.

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice.

Sondra Radvanovsky

My roots really instilled Chicago values in me.

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

HD is not forgiving. Once you see your face for the first time in a movie cinema, you run straight to the gym.

Sondra Radvanovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Sondra Radvanovsky

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.

Sondra Radvanovsky