At the time, Rachel Willis-Sørensen wasn’t even sure she needed vocal lessons. She was a teenager, and singing had been her entire life, ever since she was five years old. She had done jazz, choir, every school musical she could. What could a voice lesson possibly teach her that she didn’t already know?

You might think it would be easy for an opera singer to play another opera singer on stage. But not so for Chicago-born soprano Ailyn Pérez. She had seen the Giacomo Puccini opera Tosca several times early in her career, but the overall effect left her cold. The performances were too melodramatic, too over-the-top.

In just two weeks, we will raise the gold curtain of the War Memorial Opera House on an opera for the first time in over 20 months. It is going to feel extraordinary.