Opera singer Sarah Vardy says she'll never perfect her voice.
"It's a lot of fine-tuning all the time," she said, adding that her powerful voice requires patience and control.
The Langford soprano will take on the role of Donna Anna in the beloved opera Don Giovanni. From Tuesday to Thursday next week, a concert version of the opera with piano accompaniment will be performed at the University of Victoria.
As Vardy's favourite Mozart opera, Don Giovanni is nothing short of a soap opera.
"There are a lot of life topics brought up in this opera: love, loss, drama, people dying," she said, adding that it's darker than Mozart's other works.
As a concert piece and not a full-fledged opera, there are certain advantages for audience members.
"There's not as much going on, so people can focus on the music," Vardy said.
Along with classical voice training from a young age, Vardy earned a bachelor of music with a focus on performance.
"It has been in the last two years things have started to open up," Vardy said, adding that later this year she'll be performing in Italy and China.
Vardy talks about opera with total devotion, citing dramatic costumes and foreign languages among the best perks of her job.
"Opera is the marriage of music and literature together," she said.
At 32, Vardy's journey to the stage has been a process, and her dream of being an opera singer began as a teenager.
"A lot of people tried to talk me out of it," she said. "You have to deal with your voice maturing at a different point than others."
Her commitment hasn't wavered. Though Vardy's voice lessons are undoubtedly different from when she was eight years old, she continues to learn how to sing in the moment, never reaching perfection.
"I have to get coaching for languages and the interpretation of whatever opera I'm doing," she said.
Vardy is preparing to act out Donna Anna's dramatic personality in the performance, which will include 15 singers in total.
"It's a great character. - She's quite over the top," she said.
Vardy is committed to cultivating talent in others. When she's not scheduled to perform or rehearse, she teaches opera at home.
"The thing that I love most about opera is that it's a way to communicate to people," she said.
