Quotes

People who should be singing in church choirs are singing major roles. In some ways, success is harder to deal with than not being successful. A Verdi soprano? Grab her! Opera has become like instant soup; just add boiling water and people think it's there. [1990]

Now that I've become fluent in the [Italian] language, a whole world has opened up to me. Subtleties of speech become yours, allowing your projection of the words to color the music. It's had a big effect on my interpretations.

[on joining the New York City Opera, from 1977 to 1982:] "It was certainly not a happy experience, but it may have been a necessary one, because I now feel that if I survived that, I can survive anything."

I had had it. I went back to school, and that was that. 'No great loss,' I said to myself. 'I have half a brain. It's a total waste of a brain to be a singer.'" [But after graduating cum laude with a B.A. degree in French literature from Yale University in 1974, she determined to be a professional singer after all:] No one wanted to know my name. I was down to my last $50. That's when I decided I was going to be a singer if it killed me! [interview for Opera News, August 1986]

[on switching from light coloratura roles:] It's the same direction, it's just getting into deeper water. I wanted to put it off as long as possible. I kept saying, and it's been quoted so many times, I didn't want to do "Normina. I wanted to do Norma. And Leonora. I didn't want to sound like a soubrette trying to do these things. I've done things like Il Corsaro and La Battaglia di Legnano very early in my career, so Verdi's always been a presence. I did mostly Rigolettos and Traviatas, and then I added Desdemona a few years ago. ... So I suppose Leonora would be next in line. [Opera News, 14 February 1998)]