How many of us can wake up in the morning covered with bruises from the previous days’ exertions, check in with our ailing mother who is 850 km away, sit in traffic for an hour or more and still arrive at work filled with smiling, eager anticipation?

Being an international opera star isn’t all about basking in the spotlight of gilded halls in the world’s most glamorous cities, but Sondra Radvanovsky wouldn’t do anything else.

The star of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of “Rusalka,” which opens on Oct. 12, arrives for her interview at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with her blond curls pinned up, and dressed in yoga pants and a grey sweatshirt with the words “Thankful” and “Grateful” stamped on the front.

Radvanovsky is at the top of her game, booked solid several years into the future. She sings at the Metropolitan Opera, in Paris, in London and Barcelona. And she returns to her adopted home in Toronto once a year because she loves it here so much.

“You can’t believe how good it feels to sleep in my own bed,” she beams. “And I can enjoy nature and go for a hike in the woods.”

Radvanovsky and her husband bought a house in rural Caledon several years ago, and she feels they don’t spend nearly enough time there. “My husband calls it our expensive storage unit,” she laughs. “In the next two years, we’ll be spending an average of 10½ to 11 months on the road.”

The soprano adored for her rich, dramatic singing turned 50 last spring, and she has found the last year challenging. No, it’s not because of her age — “Fifty is just a number,” she shrugs — it’s because of the other things that go along with middle age, like having an aging parent in declining health.

“It is so awful to get a call in Barcelona saying that your mom in Chicago has fallen and needs help,” Radvanovsky explains. “You feel so helpless.”

“Your mom calls you in September and says, ‘So when are you going to come visit?’ You say, ‘I’m going to be there in December.’ Does that work?” she asks rhetorically.”

In January, Radvanovsky withdrew from multiple performances in her signature role of Aida at the Met in New York City. At the time she cited “personal reasons.” The real reason was that her mother, who is living with Parkinson’s disease, needed to move into assisted living.

“You can’t just drop your mother off and say, ‘OK, see you later.’ She was all alone,” Radvanovsky says. So she stayed a month to help unpack boxes and get her Mom settled in.

“Singing is always there, but you only get one chance at life. I don’t want to mess it up.”

It’s a life that’s complex, even by the elevated multi-tasking standards of 2019. Radvanovsky’s brother is also having health problems. She is learning a new role (Lisa) for two upcoming productions of Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” in Chicago and Berlin later this season. She has recital and opera-concert programs to prepare.

And she has to master renowned Scottish director Sir David McVicar’s COC-debut staging of “Rusalka,” which he originated for Lyric Opera of Chicago.

That’s where the bruises come in. McVicar’s vision includes undulating, craggy surfaces for the set and intense choreography for the lead character. “I’m not a ballet dancer; I’m an opera singer,” she says. But she is enjoying the challenge — “Everything Sir David does is beautiful.”

Antonin Dvorak’s 1901 setting of an achingly tragic story of a water nymph who trades her natural place in the world for a fleeting love affair with a human prince contains the “Song to the Moon,” one of the opera world’s favourite soprano arias.

It’s been 14 years since Radvanovsky last sang the role. Her father was Czech, so she has some familiarity with the language, but there’s been a lot of brushing up to do. Fortunately, she says, she saved the tapes of her sessions with her now-deceased New York City diction coach.

“I was playing the tapes on day when my husband walked in and asked, ‘Who’s that singing?’ ” the soprano admits. “That’s how much my voice has changed.”

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But, unlike the Sondra Radvanovsky of 14 years ago, the one standing up at the Four Seasons Centre now feels a confidence at age 50 that she says she didn’t feel then. “It’s a great sense of freedom, of release,” she smiles. “I feel I’m singing the best I ever have, and I’m in the best shape physically.”

Most of all, she is looking forward to her return engagements. She hints with a big smile that this will include new roles as well as more work with McVicar at the COC.

That is something we can all look forward to.

JT “Rusalka” opens on Oct. 12 and runs to Oct. 26. COC Music Director Johannes Debus is the conductor. For more information, visit coc.ca.Classical music writer John Terauds is a freelance contributor for the Star, based in Toronto. He is supported by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Follow him on Twitter @JohnTerauds

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