Layla Claire Featured In Women's Wear Daily Prior To MET Run

"Soprano Layla Claire has been more than a little busy recently — in fact, she’s had to learn three new roles this year, including the part of Anne Trulove in the Metropolitan Opera’s version of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, which will open at Lincoln Center on Friday. On this day, she is wearing a printed Club Monaco dress that flatters her coloring — Claire is a member of a rare breed, the redhead who retains the vibrant color of her hair into adulthood. 'My mother used to say, ‘You don’t like it now, but you’ll be sorry when it’s gone,’' she observes. But it’s still there. Her three new parts, which she considers 'dream roles,' are the Governess in The Turn of the Screw in Zurich; Blanche in Dialogue of the Carmelites, in Washington, and now Anne Trulove. Critics praise her big voice and clean sound. Claire, now 33, divides her free time between British Columbia — where she grew up and her family lives — and Berlin, where her boyfriend, American baritone John Chest, is based. 'I call him my zen master,' she says of the latter. 'He keeps me calm.' The soprano, who is tall and slender, is very careful with her health and her voice, including watching what she eats when she goes out to dinner and doing yoga daily at Yoga Pure in New York." [Source] Read the full story here. (Photo: Steve Eichner)