Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva (33 page)

Size 24 wedding dress and Jane Paul (far left) as my matron of honor. Melinda is on my right and Marianne on my left.

The “cover” gets her big break: my stage debut singing Amelia in
Ballo
in San Francisco, November 1990.
Marty Sohl/San Francisco Opera

Emoting—with hair—and the wonderful Hildegard Behrens in
Elektra
in 1992.
Winnie Klotz, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera Archives

A big Italian hug from a big, beautiful soul—with Luciano Pavarotti in his dressing room, after a performance of
Ballo
in 1997.

Plácido Domingo and I, pre-kiss, in
Die Walküre
at the Met—the month I met Mitch.
AP Photo/Richard Drew

Up close and personal with President Clinton, Chelsea, and Luciano (far right) after Act two of
Aida
at the Met in 2001.
Janet Koltick

Tightly corseted in the sweltering heat for my role debut as Isolde in Vienna, 1993—we got a twenty-three-minute standing ovation on opening night.
AP Photo/Stephan Trierenberg

Skewering the little black dress “mess” at my Carnegie Hall debut recital, 2004.
Richard Termine

Manhandled by the Executioner in
Salome
in 2006, where I revealed my svelte, post-surgery body.
AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

My drinking was out of control when I sang Maddalena in
Chénier
in Barcelona, 2007.
Antoni Bofill

With fellow winners at the
Opera News
Awards gala in 2007—(from left) René Pape, Renata Scotto, James Levine, and Ben Heppner.
Dario Acosta

Paired with Ben—finally!—in the plagued production of
Tristan and Isolde
at the Met in 2008.
Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Paragliding in Zurich—weightless and freeing, a sport I never would have attempted in my heavier days.