Sondra Radvanovsky Quotes

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

Trying to look glamorous while singing is not easy.

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

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

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.

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

My roots really instilled Chicago values in me.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

I perform in opera houses in the centres of big cities. We live in 20 acres of forest. You need that space to recover and renew.

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

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.

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.

For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice.