It’s impossible to be a good artist and not to draw from life. Every time American soprano Leah Crocetto performs, there is an aspect of herself in the performance.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s ‘method acting’ a la Stanislavsky, but rather it’s just a part of it. I am who and what I am, and that bleeds into every performance,” she said.

Baritone Holger Falk thinks an authentic artistic expression is always connected to real life. “The work and the transformation I do and have in my ‘real life’ always allow and enforce different artistic possibilities,” he said.

Over the coming months, Stephen Costello – “the all-American tenor … at the top of his game” (Opera News) – makes a pair of back-to-back leading role debuts. This summer he returns to Spain for his house and role debuts as Fernand in a new production of Donizetti’s La favorite at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu (July 10–24). Then fall brings his first performances as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen at the Dallas Opera, where the Tucker Award-winning tenor is already a firm house favorite (Oct 19–Nov 4).