Sound bites.(soprano is first visibly pregnant Lucia di Lammermoor in New York City Opera history)

Jennifer Welch-Babidge made the front page of The New York Times this past August as the first visibly pregnant Lucia di Lammermoor in New York City Opera history. (The baby, her second, is due this month.) Her expectant state was welcomed by director James Robinson and incorporated into his staging. But the performance very nearly didn't happen. "I pulled a back muscle in the middle of the mad scene during the dress rehearsal on Thursday, two days before opening night," Welch-Babidge explains. "By Friday night I was at the hospital getting fluids, because my back was starting to spasm so badly. So when I walked onstage twenty-foul hours later, I just hoped I could get through it. Even though I was in pain, I couldn't take any medicine, because I'm pregnant. I think, in a way, it helped--I had to be calm. When something like that happens, all you can do is focus."

No announcement was made to the audience, and the night turned into a triumph for Welch-Babidge, The Times raved, "The gifted soprano acted with a physical involvement and intensity that belled her condition, and sang with authority, agility and bright-toned beauty." That physical involvement included ...