Danielle de Niese

Raised in Melbourne and Los Angeles, soprano Danielle de Niese was already a veteran singer by the time she began her studies at Mannes College of Music. She had made her operatic debut with the Los Angeles Opera at 15, and won several music scholarships, not to mention a local Emmy Award, while in high school. De Niese was the youngest entrant to date in the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, making her Met debut in 1998 in Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Jonathan Miller. She was judged by Terry Teachout of the New York Daily News as "…clearly he...