Kristine Opolais

“My voice is not angel voice.”

“I didn't want to be Nelsons's wife. I wanted to be soprano Kristine Opolais.”

“Someone was always trying to put down my individuality and personality, making me sing Mozart arias that were nothing to do with me.”

“Nobody is pushing me. Nobody is telling me what I do.”

“I go through every single emotion. My artistic life will likely be shorter than it could be because everything is for real for me. This is my life and my soul.”

“Sometimes directors come to me when I have to play some horrible thing, scary or hysterical or crying; they ask, 'Did you study somewhere to be an actress?' No, this is life. That's why I think I don't want to say you need a really bad experience to be a good artist, but bad experiences in your life say something.”

“When I go onstage, every situation I have to play, I feel pain. When I sing 'Madama Butterfly' I feel completely everything she felt: It's horrible.”

“Maybe I will end up in the movies.”

“I hate everything that is rigid. I need freedom.”

“That's why I'm never happy. Every tragedy, I really feel very painful - especially about a child or old people. This is reality. We try to close eyes and ears, but it's happening every second, and somehow, unfortunately, I feel a connection.”

“I wrote my own pop songs and sang one of them when I went into a stupid beauty competition when I was 16. That was my public debut, and it made my mother even more determined that I should go into opera!”

“The point is that I am such a big fan of Puccini and that Butterfly is the most difficult and complete role that you can imagine. Just to sing it with a good voice is not enough: it asks tears from your soul. I am very emotional on stage, and the music is so tender that I suffer for real when I am singing it. So I cannot do many performances.”

“You can make a debut in 25 operas. But to make a debut at the Metropolitan Opera is huge.”

“Every normal woman that is a mother will do everything for your baby to make sure he is happy. Every mother understands that the baby is only happy being with his or her mother.”

“I never wanted to be an opera singer. I wanted to be an actress, maybe a rock singer.”

“Puccini is my favorite composer.”

“I'm very emotional: to lose love is the same as dying.”

“I am a good wife, so I think we need to live where my husband is working.”

“As a person who wants to see and believe in the story, I don't think women at age 50 are able to sing young girls.”

“Having a child changes everything.”