SONDRA RADVANOVSKY

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

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

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

For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice.

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

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

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.

My roots really instilled Chicago values in me.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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?

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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