“What’s striking for me,” says “Manon Lescaut” director Richard Eyre, “is that almost the first thing she said to me was, ‘I’ve always wanted to be an actress rather than a singer.’ The other Latvian singer I’ve worked with, Elīna Garanča, who I did the ‘Carmen’ at the Met with, said almost the same thing to me. I think that wanting to be an actress rather than an opera singer speaks of growing up in a culture where acting seemed a way out rather than singing. As it happens, both of them discovered that they had the most remarkable voices” . . .

She acknowledges that there was a time when she worried more about her career than her personal life. That has changed. Is she on the cusp of stardom? Opolais says she doesn’t think about that. She doesn’t read reviews anymore, either. All of the feedback she needs comes from people cheering her performance.

Read the entire feature at the Washington Post.

Image: Kristian Schuller/ The Metropolitan Opera