Well, any time Im preparing for a performance or even a rehearsal, its as if in a way, like any other athletes, these are muscles that support the vocal cords which are just I believe cartilage. It demands a kind of constant warming up and a constant feeling of where is the voice today.

I am so envious of my colleagues from 100 years ago who only sang new works, they hardly ever sang revivals.

I'm not exactly an angry young person.

There's no performance where I never have to think about setting up a phrase or making a technical adjustment while I'm performing.

Your brain has a music room, and evolution would not have gone to the trouble of designing that if it didn't have some benefits. So, that suggests to me that we and our ancestors have had music as a central part of our experience for eons. And we're just beginning to understand how that might be. I think that's fascinating.

A lot of performers don't want to leave the circuit, the European opera house circuit, partly because most singers don't sing many concerts, or at least not while they are in their prime.

I enjoy the more floaty, exposed, elegant singing.