Interview - The Porch Club with Darren Gingras

Lisette Oropesa on The Porch Club: "Voice, Vulnerability, and Becoming"

Lisette joined host Darren Gingras on The Porch Club, a weekly interview series broadcast from Toronto, for a wide-ranging conversation about identity, fear, courage, and what it truly costs to perform at the highest level in opera.

The conversation opened warmly, with Lisette joining from New York where she is currently rehearsing La traviata at the Metropolitan Opera. From the start, she was characteristically candid about the relationship between talent and identity—and the danger of making one's voice the sole measure of self-worth.

"If the one thing about you that gives you value is a gift or a talent that you have, the day that that talent fades, you start to feel like you're less of a human."

Lisette shared that since turning 40, she has been actively working to untangle her identity from her singing. As a child, all of her recognition came from performing. While that praise was well-intentioned, it left other parts of herself undeveloped. She recalled feeling isolated from other kids who couldn't relate to her gifts, and eventually quit singing to join band and play flute—just to be part of a group rather than the soloist on stage.

Darren pressed on the subject of insecurity, asking whether someone considered one of the best in the world still struggles with self-doubt. Lisette's answer was immediate and honest: the artists who project an aura of perfection are actually the most insecure, while those who are always self-correcting are the ones with real confidence. She also reframed what many might call insecurity as something closer to ego: "I know I can do better. Watch me."

One of the most striking segments addressed courage. Lisette drew a clear line between courage and recklessness, defining courage not as pushing blindly ahead, but as the belief that things will be okay even if you fail.

"Even if I don't do this exactly the way I want to execute this, it's going to be okay. Life will go on. The sun will set. It's not life and death. It's just opera."

She spoke about her relationship with fear through the lens of her body—both as an instrument and as a source of insecurity. Running, she said, was the greatest demon she ever had to conquer. She was always the last kid in gym class to finish the mile, and she's been running for twenty years now. She's still not great at it. But she keeps showing up. That discipline, she said, helped her punch through insecurities far deeper than any bad review.

The conversation also touched on the demands of an international singing career on personal relationships. Lisette was open about the sacrifices involved: having only so much voice in a day, needing silence for recovery, being unable to simply call a friend or go out to a bar before a big performance. She spoke lovingly about her marriage to Steven, noting how rare it is for a singer at her level to have a partner who travels with her full-time.

"We love each other regardless of the work. The work was not what brought us together. Even if I never sang another note on stage, we'd be happy together."

On fame and success, Lisette was thoughtful and grounded. She described success as a responsibility rather than a personal trophy, noting that young singers are always watching. She recalled her own experiences approaching her idols as a young artist—sometimes met with warmth, sometimes with an awkward brush-off—and vowed never to be the diva who turns away a young admirer.

The evening closed with Lisette looking ahead to her upcoming performances: La traviata at the Met through April, followed by a new production of I Puritani at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in June and July.