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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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