Opera star Tracy Dahl remains very down to earth

The Regina Symphony Orchestra kicks off a new season Saturday with a guest star of exceptional acclaim.

Soprano Tracy Dahl has appeared with such revered companies as the Metropolitan, San Francisco Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

She has been on stage with the likes of Placido Domingo.

On Saturday, she will perform Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and Bernstein’s On the Town: Three Dance Episodes with the RSO. (Copland’s Appalachian Spring will also be performed and conducted by Gordon Gerrard.)

Here are five things to know about Dahl.

1 True northerner

Born in Winnipeg, Dahl has kept deep roots in Western Canada, while she has found success on stages around the globe. She now serves as a professor of voice at the University of Manitoba. In 2017, she was named to the Order of Canada, “For her accomplishments as an internationally renowned opera singer and for her commitment to mentoring the next generation of Canadian singers.”

She says she was fortunate she could remain where she grew up, and still have a successful career in opera.

“I was fortunate that things took off quickly. I kept getting roles and I didn’t have to relocate.”

She cites a Saskatchewan native — Connie Kaldor — as one of her favourite artists.

“There is something about a Prairie sky.”

2 Unique playlist

A runner, Dahl has been listening to the piece she is performing with the RSO, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.

“Not everyone would think of it as running music, but it is for me,” she says. “It’s 16 minutes long and if I listen to it twice that’s 32 minutes of a workout.”

Pointing to the imagery the piece creates, Dahl enjoys the story of an adult looking back on a precious place in time.

“There is something about the simplicity of it that can reach anybody,” she says, adding that listeners respond by saying, “I wish to be in that place again. I know what that’s like.”

3 Survivor

Dahl has been open about her diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer in 2010. She has been cancer-free for seven years and hopes her healing journey inspires others.

“I hope they see me and say, ‘I can do this,’ ” she says of being on stage healthy and thriving.

“I don’t shy away,” she says of addressing her fight with the disease.

She is an advocate for mammograms, which is how her multifocal cancer was discovered.

On Sept. 30, she will run with a team in the Run For the Cure in Winnipeg.

4 No reviews

Through her career, Dahl has received some intense praise from the critics.

For example, critic Michael Margolin of Opera magazine characterized her voice as “filled with sunshine, rainbows and laser light.”

This praise is, however, largely lost on her.

“I try not to read them at all,” she says of reviews. “I learned early on that I was very dramatically affected by them.”

There is one compliment, however, that gets past her guard.

“I am touched when someone calls me a ‘treasure,’ ” she admits.

5 Bomber fan

Roughrider fans who also support the symphony are just going to have to accept that Dahl is a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan.

“I have season tickets,” she confesses, but quickly points out she has made a concession to coming into Saskatchewan territory. “I have a Rider-green dress,” she says.

There is, however, also a blue dress for the performance. “It’s very strategic.”