Tenor Xabier Anduaga and soprano Nadine Sierra performing at a rehearsal for "La Sonnambula" at the Metropolitan Opera on Oct. 1, 2025.

Setting an uptempo vibe

Derrick Goff, onetime vocal coach at the Metropolitan Opera : “I grew up surrounded by church music, choirs, piano playing. I started taking languages. There’s vocal music in other countries, operas, art songs. Italian, French, German, Polish, Russian, English.

“I was in the young artist open applications program at the Met. My second live audition I worked my behind off preparing for. You play the piano while singing at 10:30 a.m. Nerve-wracking. Auditioning was scary.

“You must prepare. I prepared two different acts of two different operas. An hour and a half of music altogether. And I played maybe 20 minutes of that. Then

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