Top 35 Sondra Radvanovsky Quotes

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

I’m American by birth, but I consider myself Canadian.

Opera tells stories that all ages can relate to: love, death, revenge, etc.

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

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

When I teach master classes, I tell young singers if the foundation isn’t good, the house will crumble.

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

Artists shouldn’t deal with business stuff; that’s not what we’re trained in, and most of us aren’t good at it.

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.

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

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’m going to the gym and really taking care of myself and trying to stay fit, eating properly.

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.

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 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.

I have the best job in the whole world because I get paid to do something I love. How many people do you know who can say that?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Trying to look glamorous while singing is not easy.

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

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

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?

When I am on the opera stage, I am playing someone else. In recitals, I even have the chance to talk to the audience, which is something you don’t get to do in opera.

My roots really instilled Chicago values in me.

And if I don’t sing, I don’t get paid.

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.

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 love the tragic side. I don’t do ‘happy’ onstage. I like the dark, the disturbed.

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

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.

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