made it monumental to me was the person singing the lead role, the title road was an african-american mezoo and she made me feel every emotion on the emotional spectrum. and afterwards i got to meet her back staining. and she called me her boo, took pictures with me. and i fell in love with opera. when i left the operahouse that day, i told my voice teacher mr. brown who is also in the book, great person, i told him you know, i know what i want to do with my life. i want to sing at the met that was the first dream i ever had, the first dream. >> and you fast forward to you performing at the met. >> nine years later. >> and somebody has come to watch you. >> yeah. and you know, recently denise it graves who happened to hear by word of mouth about the book. ended up being in the same green room as i did a couple montds ago, colleen at the met,