The student's job is to stay open-minded, to quell the knee-jerk defensiveness we all possess in the face of suggestions for improvement, and to maintain patience when faced with a process that is often slow, confusing, and frustrating.

Being steeped in the process of learning and exploring keeps me from becoming too nervous. Partly it's about not getting bored.

When a human being without amplification makes a sound that is high and loud, it is almost unworldly.

A lot of bad behavior in singers is caused by nerves.

In a way, being an opera singer is like being a very romantic sixteen-year-old who falls in love with great passion and conviction every month.

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 haven't really been able to transfer into that extraordinarily other worldly creature, other than I hope on stage.