Quote of the Day

"I once put that question to the great soprano Leontyne Price.  She said, 'Oh, darling, sometimes I pop open a bottle of champagne and listen to my records all afternoon.'  Her point was, if you don't love your voice, how can you expect other people to?  That was a bit of a shock to me.  I'm from the American Midwest, where a lot of self-deprecation goes a long way!  But it taught me a lesson, that if I don't believe I have something to say, then it's a bit presumptuous of me to put it on disc for all eternity.  I do listen to my recordings, but primarily to learn things from them."

Joyce DiDonato, effervescentt mezzo soprano and Yankee Diva, on listening to her recordings to Gramophone, May 2010

I love it!  A Quote of the Day within a Quote of the Day!   The other bit of information in this article by John von Rhein that excites me most is "[she] will be taking on, for the first time, the vocally strenuous role of the eponymous Scottis queen in Maria Stuarda, a portrayal she is scheduled to to unveil in Houston in 2012 before bringing it to the Met."  Yes!