“What opera needs, at least as much as great voices, is great personalities. Not ‘divas,’ in the debased sense of egomaniacs with mannerisms, but intrepid explorers of the human condition, each a Ulysses who has traveled far, seen much, felt deeply. Explorers who convey the fullness of experience through music, word and gesture, touching, in ways unique to themselves, the chord of the universal.” – New York Times