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Sandra Oh trades the small screen for the grand stage of the Met Opera Estelle.Bronkhorst Thu, 10/16/2025 - 06:00 NEW YORK - Best known for her acclaimed TV roles in Grey s Anatomy and Killing Eve, Sandra Oh says she finds herself amazed by the magic of the stage as she readies for her operatic debut in New York on Friday.In La Fille du Regiment, Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti s comic opera, the Canadian-American actress plays the Duchess of Krakenthorp, who reluctantly marries off her son. The role is spoken rather than sung -- and in French. She s very stern and she s very angry, and I find it very, very difficult to keep that face when the most beautiful music is happening right in front of me, Oh says with a laugh during an interview with AFP after Tuesday s dress rehearsal.Her first foray on the Metropolitan Opera stage was the result of a happy accident: the storied institution s general manager offered her the role after seeing her perform Shakespeare s Twelfth Night in the open-air theatre in Central Park this summer. To move into a stage this grand, and to move into the heights of what opera is, and really it s to be in rehearsal with some of the greatest artists...is something that s very, very rare, she reflects. I wanted to try that experience. And I do try and do that in my life and in my career, to just try things that are new, things that mostly scare me, added the 54-year-old.What surprised her most was the crazy pace of the production, at odds with the slow or gentle way audiences experience opera: You have sets that are moving all the time, people who are just coming, and you have people who are telling you exactly where to be all the time. And while it is divine, it s bananas, she said. In a special stage this big, you do have to be very conscious of all your gestures, she sums up, noting that on screen, it s the quality of an actor s expressions that the lens captures. As an actor, you should be able to do all of it. As it happens, Oh is also set to appear in US theaters starting Friday, alongside Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, and Keke Palmer in the comedy Good Fortune. I m in my comedy phase, and everything is like, feel good, it s a comedy. And, you know, bring a bit of joy, she concludes.

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