She was born in New York in 1960, in a family with a keen interest in music (her mother was a singer and her father a teacher of vocals). She studied music, the flute, singing and acting at the Herbert Berghof Actors Studio in New York City. A mezzo-soprano at first, she developed a soprano voice in Germany under the guidance of Birgit Nilsson and Astrid Varnay. These two famous sopranos introduced her to the repertoire of Richard Strauss' and Wagner's operas, thus laying the foundations of her international carrer. She has performed at the most important opera houses in Europe, America and Asia, she has worked with prominent conductors and soloists, and she has also participated in concerts. She is best known for her interpretations in Richard Strauss' and Wagner's works. Her operatic repertoire includes roles such as those of Brunhild [The Valkyria, Siegfried, The Twilight of the Gods/Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung] (Teatro Fenice, Venice; Marseille; Berlin; Geneva; Toulouse; Stuttgart; Copenhagen; Düsseldorf; Birmigham), Elektra [Elektra] (Dresden, Bilbao, Essen, Rome, Seville, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Rome, Zürich), Salome [Salome] (Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Paris, Leipzig, Tokyo, Palermo), Isolde [Tristan und Isolde] (New York Metropolitan Opera, Hamburg, Buenos Aires, Rome, Toulouse), Barak's Wife [The Woman without a Shadow/Die Frau ohne Schatten] (Toulouse), Marie [Wozzeck] (Rome), Lady Macbeth [Macbeth] (Berlin, Mexico City), Minnie [The Girl of the West/La fanciulla del West] (Rome, Berlin) and Amelia [A Masked Ball/Un ballo in maschera]. At the GNO, she interpreted Turandot [Turandot] in 2007-08, at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus [""Herodion""].