"Whereas her onstage persona is intense and striking (she is often called the opera world's Angelina Jolie, a comparison that owes to her large dark eyes and naturally plump lips), offstage she's relaxed and informal. She says opera stars are not really famous offstage — which she claims is equally the case in Los Angeles as in opera-centric Milan, where she lives with her newlywed husband, baritone Guido Loconsolo. 'You know, the people who are really famous, that a normal person in a supermarket can recognize, in opera it's really only one or two people,' she says. 'Opera's beauty is recognized in the theater.'....In speaking candidly about her career ambitions, she sounds more like a girl picking out lollipops in a candy store than a world-class artist charting an international career. Asked about this carefree, un-self-conscious attitude, she says, 'You know, our job is so beautiful, but it's also so difficult because we are traveling, doing crazy things like: Do one performance in one city, and the day after do a concert in another city. I think if you take a job like this, and don't have attitude like, 'OK, let's do it,' you get crazy. So definitely this is my personality, I'm happy that — thank God — I'm like this.' [Source]
Some people have referred to you as the Angelina Jolie of the opera world. Others say you are a new Anna Netrebko. How do you feel about these comparisons?
"The Angelina Jolie of the opera world" -- this always amuses me. And actually I take it as a compliment, because I think that Angelina Jolie is a very beautiful woman. So I just say thank you! Why not? But as for a "new Anna Netrebko" -- I always say that I am not a new Anna Netrebko. She is a great singer, and I admire Anna and her voice. But I am Nino Machaidze. And I keep repeating it: I am Nino Machaidze. [Source]
