Opera star Elīna Garanča: "I am the best singing farmgirl"

She is often described as a diva, an opera star, a vocal marvel – and the cool blonde from the north. Yet every time she hears these labels, celebrated Latvian singer Elīna Garanča is taken aback, for she sees herself quite differently. “The Elīna Garanča on stage has nothing to do with the private Elīna,” she explains. “When the performance ends, the curtain falls, the applause fades, I go to my dressing room, remove my costume, return to the hotel and very often, I am alone. Success does not shield an artist from loneliness. The magic disappears, and that is when real life begins for me: the everyday life of a mother and wife, a daughter and a woman.” These reflections are drawn from her autobiography Between Worlds.