What was the last piece of music you bought?
The score of Britten’s Turn of the Screw, and Erykah Badu’s latest, Mixtape. That pretty much sums up my music taste.
How do you mostly listen to music?
Pandora – an online DJ - gives me endless hours of listening. It’s not available in a lot of countries so I’ve had to get a little creative to enjoy it while travelling. I usually listen to music on the go, on my iPad or iPhone with headphones.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
“Cool girl music” is what I call it. Lorde, Little Dragon and Lykka with a pinch of Wax Tailor make for a great lineup for cruising down Sunset Boulevard!
If you found yourself with six months free to learn a new instrument, what would it be?
Piano would be the practical answer, but honestly, when have I ever been practical? I would continue learning tabla or start the sitar. It would be delicious to live in Indian classical music for a while.
Which conductor or performer of the past would you like to have worked with?
How divine would it have been to have worked under the baton of Maestro Mozart, premiering one of his operas?
What was the first record or cd you bought?
Aged four I was given a tape of Whitney Houston along with a children’s Boom Box which had a plug-in microphone. I played and rewound the tape so many times the film in it broke. I remember trying to fix it with sticky tape.
What’s the most unusual place you’ve performed?
A nail shop! My mother was so proud of me at 15 years old that when I came home for the holidays she had me serenading the entire nail salon during her appointment. (No one tells this lady no!) Light-headed, I barely got through my a cappella version of Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro.
What’s been your most memorable live music experience as an audience member?
The great Leontyne Price came out of retirement to grace the ears of New Yorkers at Carnegie Hall to lift our spirits after 9/11. When the door cracked open for her to walk on stage the entire hall stood on their feet and everyone erupted in a roar. You can only imagine how wild it was when she stepped on stage. I have to this day never heard a hall so still as it was when she began to sing.
We’re giving you a time machine: what period, or moment in musical history, would you travel to and why?
As much as I would love to see what other periods were like, I would not want to be anywhere except right here and now. Anyway I get to step into a time machine every day at work – that’s one of the many perks of being an opera singer.
Which non-classical musician would you like to work with?
Several! Here are a few... RuPaul, Missy Elliot, Q-tip, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Sting...
Imagine you’re a festival director here in London with unlimited resources. What would you programme - or commission - for your opening event?
A brand-new opera of Alice in Wonderland produced by Cirque du Soleil, with a paid rehearsal period of four months. It would be the production of the century, one that would tour the world. Can you guess who Alice would be?
It’s late, you’ve had a few beers, you’re in a Karaoke bar. What do you choose to sing?
Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You - naturally!
Lauren Michelle is Jessica in WNO’s production of Tchaikowsky’s Merchant of Venice, at the Millennium Centre, Cardiff, and touring, from 16 September.
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