Angela Meade could be forgiven for being a bundle of nerves. But the thirty-one-year-old soprano, whose professional stage debut arrived unexpectedly at the Met last March while she was covering the role of Ernani's Elvira, comes across as a model of imperturbability. "It wasn't actually as nerve-wracking as I thought it would have been," says the soprano. "It was fine once I got onstage — I was just living in the whole process." Those lucky enough to find themselves at that performance heard Meade's Elvira kick the opera into high gear with a plush, versatile instrument that sounded as sumptuous in her scena's lyrical cavatina, "Ernani, involami," as her coloratura was precise in its tricky cabaletta, "Tutto sprezzo che d'Ernani." Her combination of artistry and equanimity continues to serve her well: additional pressure-cooker cover assignments from the Met have included the company's Verdi Requiem, presented in commemoration of the anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti's death, as well as understudying Renée Fleming in the final scene of Capriccio during this season's opening night.

Meade's success is certainly not a fluke: the soprano's relative inexperience on the professional stage belies an upward career trajectory marked by a remarkable number of major competition wins. The Met's National Council Auditions? Won them. The Liederkranz Foundation Competition? Won that, too. The Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition? First place. The International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition? Took both the Opera and Operetta divisions. The list of accolades runs to the dozens. "The National Councils were a much more stressful thing for me than going on and making my debut," she says. "I think part of that has to do with wanting to win. It was two weeks of stress leading up to the competition, whereas with Ernani, I went on, and I knew what I was doing. A lot of young singers dog competitions and say that they are not important to a career, but most of my success has been directly related to them."

A fourth-year resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, where she's sung roles ranging from Berta in Barbiere di Siviglia to Freischütz's Agathe and Così's Fiordiligi, Meade owns up to a readiness to eschew the crowded lyric repertoire for the bigger challenges of bel canto's shiniest gems. After November AVA performances as Anna Bolena, she sings Lucia with the school this spring, followed by Semiramide at the Caramoor Festival. "I actually think that I'm maybe more of a Bellini singer — that might be just because I've sung 'Casta Diva' for so long. But I'm really glad people see me continuing in this vein," she says. "For a long time I thought, 'Well, they're just going to see me as a lyric.' I don't want to say singing lyric soprano repertoire is much easier, but I don't think there's as much thought required — I feel like I can roll out of bed and sing lyric-soprano stuff any day."

ADAM WASSERMAN

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