Crossover

October, 2004, of Opera News has and excellent quote (excellent because it agrees with my own humble opinion, of course):

If any singer defined how to cross over -- and back again -- with class, it was the great American soprano Eileen Farrell, who sang everything from Wagner to Alex Wilder with unaffected style and radiant self-assurance. About ten years ago, I was at a reception at which Farrell was asked about crossover. Just what, Farrell's questioner wondered, was the secret to being able to sing it all? Farrell, then as always famously short on matters of technical analysis, didn't miss a beat. "You've got to sound like yourself," she answered. And there the conversation ended.